Deputy Chief Minister and Minister for Home R. Ashok said here on Monday that the Government will sanction Rs. 30,000 to each of the seven Coastal Security Police stations in the State for intelligence gathering.
Addressing presspersons after inaugurating a new building of the Punjalkatte Police Station, the Deputy Chief Minister said the State had 300-km shoreline.
Intelligence gathering was important to prevent smuggling and terrorism in the coastal belt. The police would have to keep in touch with fishermen and others for intelligence gathering. The government would sanction Rs. 2.10 lakh for the seven stations as a special grant for the purpose.
Mr. Ashok said the State government would constitute State Industrial Security Force (SISF) on the lines of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF).
There would be three battalions of the SISF with 2,000 personnel.
The process of recruiting the personnel was on. They would be issued with appointment orders within a month from now. The SISF personnel would guard important dams, information technology companies, and power stations. To a question, he said that there was no proposal before the government to open any new police stations in Maoist-affected areas.
Asked why the government gave a chance to Maoists to surrender when the Anti-Naxal Force (ANF) personnel were zeroing in on their hideouts in the Western Ghats near Kulkunda recently, the Minister said that Maoists were not foreigners. As a civil society, it was not proper on the part of the government to attack them without giving them a chance to surrender. They were given a chance to return to the mainstream of society. But they did not turn respond.
The Deputy Chief Minister said that the number of Maoists from the State had reduced now. Some pamphlets seized by the police suggested that some Tamil Nadu-based Maoists were operating in the State.
Referring to Sowjanya murder case (reported near Dharmasthala recently), Mr. Ashok said the government was ready to hand it over to the Corps of Detectives if the family was not happy with the police investigation. He said that the local police had arrested a person in connection with the case and members of the family of the victim spoke to him for half-an-hour on Monday.
The new building of the Punjalkatte Police Station in Belthangady taluk had been built at an estimated cost of Rs. 55 lakh. The jurisdiction of the station covered 22 villages.
Later, Mr. Ashok inaugurated the new building of the Bantwal Town Police Station at B.C. Road. It had been built at an estimated cost of Rs. 65 lakh.
Director-General and Inspector-General of Police L.R. Pachao, Inspector-General of Police (Western Range) C.H. Pratap Reddy, Mangalore Police Commissioner Manish Kharbikar, and Dakshina Kannada Superintendent of Police Abhishek Goyal were present.
