Chief Minister Raman Singh on Friday inaugurated the two-day conference of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) officials at Police lines here on Friday.
On the occasion, Singh unveiled the symbol of 'CRPF Chhattisgarh Sector'.
In his address, the Chief Minister lauded the operational campaigns conducted by CRPF in the State and said that the collective efforts would soon lead to end Naxal violence in the State.
Chief Secretary Vivek Dhand, Director General of Police (DGP) AN Upadhyay and Principal Secretary to Chief Minister, Aman Kumar Singh were also present.
During the conference, CRPF Officials gave presentation on the objective of the conference to make an effective strategy for year 2016 after thorough review of operations conducted by the force in Chhattisgarh in year 2015.
It is known that a large number of CRPF officers and personnel have been deployed in remote and sensitive areas of the State since the year 2003. In the conference, concerned officials gave a presentation on CRPF's anti-Naxal operations and activities underway in Chhattisgarh.
Meanwhile, Special Director General of CRPF Central Zone Durga Prasad, Inspector General of Police (Operations) of the Directorate General Zulfiqar Hasan, Inspector General of Chhattisgarh Sector Sadanand Date and other senior officials were also present.
Towards the end of the inaugural programme, Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) D Bhattacharya proposed vote of thanks.
It may be recalled that a 50-bedded Hospital is coming up for use by Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel in Bilaspur.
On the other hand, the Chhattisgarh Government has also decided to build a 100-bedded hospital at Jagdalpur in restive Bastar region.
The State Government had provisioned `1 crore for construction of the hospital in its supplementary budget for 2015-16, officials stated.
Notably, as many as 259 battalions of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) are currently deployed in Chhattisgarh’s left Wing Extremism (lWE) affected regions, officials stated.
The deployment in other States is as follows- Andhra Pradesh ( 16), Telangana ( 12), Bihar (57), Chhattisagrh ( 259), Jharkhand ( 144), Madhya Pradesh ( 8), Maharashtra (34), Odisha ( 102), Uttar Pradesh ( 6), West Bengal (53).
At present, a total of 691 battalions of CAPFs are deployed across the country in lWE areas.
Deployment of CAPFs is a dynamic process and keeps on changing from time to time depending upon the requirements projected by the State as well as demands of other lWE-affected States, availability of force and security situation in the particular State, officials stated.
Notably, Chhattisgarh stands fourth in the country in terms of the number of districts affected by lWE.
A total of 106 districts in the States are considered as lWE-hit. Of these, Bihar has maximum 22 districts, followed by Jharkhand (21), Odisha(19), Chhattisgarh (16), Andhra Pradesh and Telangana,- both 8 each, West Bengal and Maharashtra,- both 4 each, Uttar Pradesh,- 3 and Madhya Pradesh, one.
The Central Government has also revised the guidelines for ‘Surrender-cum-Rehabilitation Scheme of left Wing Extremists in the affected States’ with effect from April 1, 2013.
Moreover, as per the revised policy, the Central Government provides reimbursement of expenditure incurred on an immediate grant for surrendered lWE cadres subject to a ceiling of Rs 2.5 lakh for higher ranked lWE cadres and `1.5 lakh for middle/lower ranked lWE cadres.
The additional incentives given for surrender of weapons/ ammunition is also reimbursed which ranges from `10,000 to `35000 per weapon depending on type of weapon surrendered from detonator to light Machine Gun, Rocket launcher etc.
In addition, the monthly stipend paid to the surrenderee while undergoing vocational training is also reimbursed subject to the ceiling of `4000 per month per surrenderee for a maximum period of 36 months. The revised policy envisages formation of the Screening-cum-Rehabilitation Committees by the State Governments which are involved in the process of identification and rehabilitation of surrendered lWE cadres.