The Odisha government on Thursday urged the Centre to waive charges of ₹4,561 crore towards the deployment of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) for combating Left Wing Extremism (LWE) in the State.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi pointing out that LWE was a national issue and a grave internal security threat to the integrity of the nation and it had to be addressed by both Centre and States jointly.
In 2015, Mr. Patniak had urged the Centre to reconsider the decision of charging the State government for deployment of Central forces.
In response, the then Union Home Minister had said that there had been no change in the extant policy of the government as approved earlier by the Cabinet Committee on Security.
“As such, all States except the few special category States such as north-east, Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh were required to bear full charges for deployment of CAPFs in their States,” the Home Minister intimated adding that due to overall constraint of resources, it was not feasible to exempt the State government from payment of deployment charges.
Now, the Odisha government emphasised that the problem of naxal violence had spread to large areas of the country and the LWE was a national issue and a grave internal security threat to the integrity of the nation.
Batting for waiving of charges, Mr. Patnaik informed that Odisha on its own had raised 15 battalions of State police to combat LWEs out of scanty resources.
“As high as 30,000 posts in the police cadre have also been created including armed formations along with specialised training centres and other logistic facilities for their deployment,” the Odisha CM said.
“Considering that LWE is an issue of joint responsibility, and the State government is doing a lot to combat the menace, the government of India may appreciate the difficulties of the State like Odisha while charging for such deployment of CAPF for dealing with LWE,” Mr. Patnaik said urging Mr. Modi to direct the Ministry of Home Affairs to waive the amount that had been charged towards deployment of CAPF.
In Odisha, Central Reserve Police Force and Border Security Force personnel have been deployed to combat LWEs.
