MURUMGAON (GADCHIROLI): The undercurrent of mutual distrust between the central paramilitary forces and district police in Naxal-affected Gadchiroli seems not to have gone down well with the union home minister P Chidambaram.
On his maiden visit to the Maharashtra's worst Naxal-hit district on Tuesday, Chidambaram raised questions before the senior state police officials regarding their role in ensuring that the deployed Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) was properly involved in joint operations. Four battalions of CRPF are posted in the district to assist police operations against the rebels.
Sources said TOI that Chidambaram appeared perturbed over the fact that the CRPF was being ignored and underused in the district. "He was concerned about the facilities available at the CRPF camps and the well-being of the personnel. He wanted to know what amenities were being provided to the jawans who deployed here since last one year," said a source who was part of the union home minister's entourage.
During his visits to the armed police assistance post at sensitive Murumgaon and at Dhanora town, Chidambaram was keen to know the issues plaguing jawans posted there. Murumgaon is about 55 km from Gadchiroli district headquarters and highly sensitive Chhattisgarh border is just 16 km from here. TOI correspondent was part of the visit at Murumgaon where Chidambaram interacted with jawans and tried to know their problems personally.
He walked up to the only well in the police outpost inspecting the water level. Learning that the level fluctuates during dry spell, Chidambaram instructed the district collector Atul Patne and other senior police officials to ensure that a borewell should be dug there. "There is a forest department borewell which can be used here too," he said.
The union home minister's instructions were clear and loud, though he spoke in his trademark calm tone, that there should be no dearth of drinking and potable water for jawans fighting in inhospitable terrain. "Buy standard borewell," said Chidambaram to Patne when the collector tried to discuss the issue during the Murumgaon outpost visit.
According to sources, during review meetings too Chidambaram questioned the senior officials regarding the recent Naxal violence that had occurred in district asking them how such incidents had been occurring despite adequate assistance from the government. His visit seemed to have brought smiles back on the faces of the jawans engaged in a grueling fight with guerrillas.
One of the jawans told TOI that it was a welcome gesture from the union home minister. "He (Chidambaram) motivated us, egged us on to keep up the fighting spirit and assured us of assistance. We told him about our problem of water scarcity and he heard it patiently," said a jawan. The CRPF jawans sounded positive when they claimed Chidambaram was keen to listen to that they wanted to him to know.
Chidambaram Concerned adove CRPF
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