The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved creation of 17 new India Reserve Battalions (IRBs) in Jammu & Kashmir and Naxal-hit pockets of Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Jharkhand and Maharashtra. The new force will generate recruitment to 17,000 youths. The Cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi also approved cyber security pacts with Malaysia, Singapore and Japan.
To bring more investment in building of highways, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) approved hybrid annuity model for building roads to fast-track highway projects, revive the Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) mode and attract more investments in the sector.
Among the new police battalions, five IRBs will be raised in Jammu & Kashmir, four in Naxal-affected Chhattisgarh while three each in Jharkhand and Odisha and two battalions will be raised in Maharashtra.
In an attempt to create employment and provide jobs to the local youth, in J&K 60 per cent of vacancies in the new IRBs will be filled from border districts of the State for recruitment in the ranks of constables and Class IV employees in their establishment.
In the lWE-affected States, 75 per cent of vacancies of constables in the new IRBs will be filled from 27 core districts identified under the Security Related Expenditure (SRE) scheme which categories the worst Naxal violence- affected regions in the country as flagged by the Union Home Ministry.
The IRBs were first created in 1971 by the Central Government and till now 144 such units have been raised out of a total sanctioned 153. An IRB is a special auxiliary unit of trained police personnel created to assist and aid regular police units in rendering special tasks of law and order upkeep or to undertake anti-Naxal or counter-insurgency operations like central paramilitary forces.
The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) and its counterparts in Malaysia, Singapore and Japan have signed three pacts for cooperation in cyber security. The pacts aim at promoting exchange of knowledge and experience in detection, resolution and prevention of security related incidents between India and these countries, said the Ministry of Communications and IT. The agreements with these three countries were initiated during Modi’s visit, previous year.
The Cabinet gave ex- post facto approval for revised cost of Rs 969 crore for the Afghan Parliament building in Kabul. It is expected the Parliament building will be handed over to the Afghan authorities by March 31. India has invested USD two billion in aid and reconstruction of Afghanistan.
The Cabinet was apprised of an agreement signed between India and Russia for joint implementation of competitive research projects in areas of basic and exploratory sciences. It provides for competitive research grants to Indians and Russians for joint implementation of projects.
Cabinet also approved increase in the share capital of National Scheduled Castes Finance and Development Corporation (NSFDC) from Rs 1,000 crore to Rs 1,200 crore for better coverage of schemes meant for SC/ST communities. NSFDC is a central public sector enterprise (CPSE) under the aegis of the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment.