A day after the Centre filed a review petition in the Supreme Court on its order related to black money, the Bharatiya Janata Party too decided to go for a review plea on its ruling disbanding and disarming special police officers (SPOs).
Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh, who was here on Saturday, said he had consulted several lawyers on the Supreme Court's judgment on SPOs. “We have 100 per cent made up our mind to go for a review petition,” he said.
While saying that for the next few weeks, till the review petition is filed and heard, his government will “follow the stipulation of the Supreme Court,” his view on the subject has not changed at all. Justifying the appointment of a vigilante militia in the form of SPOs, he said “Raman [referring to himself] na badla hai na badlega.” (Raman Singh has not changed his view or his approach despite the court's verdict).
Asked whether it was true that 13 to 16-year-olds had been armed and trained as SPOs, he denied this. “Our SPOs are not minors but very young men,” was his response although he refused to specify how young these “young men” were.
He was annoyed that the focus was mostly on SPOs in Chhattisgarh, who most often are the first to face Naxal assaults when, in fact, other States, including Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand and Jammu and Kashmir, have something equivalent in the form of village defence committees as the first line of defence against Naxals or other insurgents. “Chhattisgarh is not the only State using SPOs,” he said, adding there were roughly 5,000 SPOs in his State.
He admitted that schemes such as the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme could not be implemented in several districts affected by Naxalism. “I met Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh and he will soon visit the State. In many areas there are no post offices and banks [through which MNREGA wages can be paid]. People have to walk many kilometres,” was the reason he extended for not bringing employment to local people through this scheme.
