State to have armed police battalion

MUMBAI: Maharashtra could soon have an armed police battalion which could function as a striking force in an emergency.
The battalion, to be called the Indian Reserve Battalion (IRB), has been proposed by the Centre and is based on the lines of similar forces raised in Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and a few other states.
At present, the state police summons its own reserve forces or seeks the help of the Rapid Action Force, (RAF) when the situation gets out of hand.
However, officials complain that the Centre does not always provide adequate number of RAF personnel as these companies may be stationed elsewhere.
Apparently for the same reason, states like Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab and Kerala have already raised their own battalions on the lines of an infantry division.
The State Reserve Police Force, (SRPF) on the other hand, has about 16,000 police personnel and 500 officers spread over 15 groups all over the state. The SRPF has, however, played a significant role when it was sent to fight agitations in Assam and closer home at Belgaum, during the Maharashtra-Karnataka border dispute.
“But the SRPF is short-staffed and given the government’s ban on fresh recruitments it is not likely to be strengthened,’’ a senior official said. As against this, the IRB has been proposed by the Centre which will provide the initial raising amount as also long-term loans from time to time, sources said.
According to officials in Mantralaya, the Union home ministry has already agreed to bear the initial expenditure of Rs 13 crore for raising the IRB.
The IRB proposed for Maharashtra is likely to have 1200 armed police personnel comprising nine companies of 125 men each. Each company will be supervised by an officer of the rank of superintendent of police under the overall supervision of a deputy inspector general of police.
After a study of the IRB in various other states, the state police submitted a proposal to the government last month. The proposal says that minimum of Rs 50.66 crore will be required to raise the IRB in Maharashtra.
However, the state government,which will have to incur the recurring expenditure on the force, has yet to decide on the proposal.