Understaffed, under policed India raise new battalions to check Naxals

IF MINISTER of State (MoS) for Home Affairs, Sriparkash Jaiswal is to be believed then raising new police battalions might help in checking Naxalist onslaught but it won’t go a long way in improving the overall law and order situation in the country.

The reason for this being that police department in the country is totally understaffed and for every one lakh people, there are only 142.69 policemen to maintain law and order.

It was only after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh identified Naxalite movement as one of the most serious internal security to the country, that the government woke up to the threat posed by left wing terrorists.

And to check the spread of Red terror, the Home Ministry has approved rising of 35 additional India Reserve battalions during the next three years, in states affected by Naxalite violence depending upon internal situation.

Though the information provided by Sriparkash Jaiswal in Rajya Sabha this week, gives hope on Naxalite front, but his statement about the understaffed police department in country raises serious questions.

It can be fairly surmised that the lack of adequate policemen is leading to the worsening law and order situation in the Indian cities and rural areas.

Making the startling disclosure in Rajya Sabha, Jaiswal in a written statement, quoted figures compiled by Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPR&D), which state that the number of police personnel per one lakh of population in India as on 1.1.2006 is 142.69 police personnel for every one-lakh population.

According to a UN statistics quoted by the minister, the police-public ratio in Italy is 559.0, Mexico has 491.8, Saudi Arabia 386.5 and Belgium 357.5 policemen for every 100, 000 people.

Notably the Indian ratio is much less as compared to other countries, Jaiswal’s statement revealed in the Rajya Sabha.

The minister, however, said that the Centre has been advising state governments to fill up the existing vacancies of police personnel and outsource some of the non-core police duties, which will also save manpower and promote police-community partnership.

On the Naxalite issue, Jaiswal answering a separate question apprised the house that 35 additional reserve battalions will be raised in next three years in the Naxalite affected states.

He revealed that these battalions would be raised nine states including Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Orissa, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.

The expenditure of this new recruitment would be borne by the Center under the security related expenditure scheme of Union Home Ministry, he said.

“For dealing with Naxalite activities, states are being assisted in, and requested for, steps as are important for effective policing, which include filling up of vacancies in state police forces and the raising of specialised forces, trained in counter-insurgency and jungle-warfare,” he added.