Kolkata, Dec 04: A day after the Central team left the state after meeting the district magistrates and superintendents of police of the trouble-torn districts, the state government today received a Union government note asking for withdrawal of six companies of Central Paramilitary Forces (CPF) posted in the Maoist-hit areas of Jhargram-Lalgarh belt even as the state CID said they were fighting a losing battle with the ultras.
The six companies would be deployed for poll duty in Jharkhand.
“We have today received an order from the Union Home Ministry asking that six companies of BSF would be withdrawn from Lalgarh-Jhargram area. We have requested the Centre not to withdraw the forces, but to no avail. The Centre must have a compulsion. At present, the state government will be left with 11 companies of CRPF,” said Bhupinder Singh, the state’s director general of police.
There will be no replacement of 10 companies of forces, which translates into about 420 jawans, the official said.
Kuldeep Sing, IG (western range), however, said, “It is a reorganisation process. We will receive new deployment soon.”
A senior IPS official said the Centre could pull out more troops from West Midnapore since their presence has not made any difference in the ground condition in the Maoists-affected areas. “Instead, violence has increased. The state agencies have not been able to explain as to why the operation failed in Jhargram-Lalgarh,” he added.
Meanwhile, the decision has hit the morale of the officials posted in the area, some of whom felt it will create a vacuum in the security setup there.
“We had nothing to do in the matter after we received the order from the Centre. This is a tactical issue and we cannot comment,” said West Midnapore SP Manoj Verma. “We do not have any orders for re-deployment as of now,” he added.
Some other senior police officers, including from the state CID, said they were fighting a losing battle against the Maoists. “It needs a political solution. All the villagers have turned hostile to us.
Our local intelligence officers have been deliberately fed information that the ultras wanted us to receive. They are laying traps for the security officials by sending wrong information to the police through the villagers,” said Ajey Ranade, DIG (Operations), CID.
–Agencies