Internal Security: Various Problems Faced by CRPF

The Central Reserve Police Force or CRPF is the largest of India’s Central Armed Police Forces. It functions under the aegis of Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) of the Government of India. The CRPF’s primary role lies in assisting the State/Union Territories in police operations to maintain law and order and counter insurgency. Although it is the largest armed, still the soldier of CRPF fears when posted in the red corridor, as the terrain of the area is extremely inhospitable and the threat of a Maoist ambush looms large most of the time. CRPF faces several problems in its administration, personnel management, cadres, posts etc. To a great extent, these issues are also responsible for frequent Maoist attacks on CRPF convoys. Here is a brief summary of these issues.

• An officer who is directly recruited in the CRPF (or other paramilitary forces) through direct recruitment does not make it to the top. The higher posts are reserved for officers from the Indian Police. This demoralizes the recruits who are left in stagnation and in turns affects the efficiency of the force. Hence, they want the government to recognise them as organised cadre.
• The poor living conditions prevalent in the camps in the Naxal hit areas during Anti-Naxal operation is a major issue. The people who are risking their lives for the country are not being able to get even basic amenities especially food and toilets. The lack of toilets in those areas reflects the filthy conditions they are living in which is inviting many of the disease. They also do not get enough food as there is regular attacks on their vehicles carrying food supplies and risks in airlifting food to them. In many cases they have to be dependent on local suppliers and villagers and as an added life risk, Maoist sympathizers have been known to poison water sources. Hence, our soldiers are affected from diseases more than naxal war.
• CRPF also lacks an efficient leadership. They have officers up to the rank of Commandant who come up from the rank of the Assistant Commandant when they join as young officers. These officers lead the troops in all operations. Unfortunately, the feudal mindset and police culture affects them as well. What is required are officers well trained in CI operations. Even more important are higher level leadership. This is where the rot lies since most of the DIGs and IGs and DGs are IPS officers who have never served in counter-insurgency operations. While they may have been excellent policemen, they have never led troops in CI operations and have no clue how to go about planning such operations. Thus on the ground, CRPF troops go around harassing villagers – adding fire to the fuel of LWE.
• Also, unplanned expansion of the forces has made human resource management a stupendous problem. There are 240 battalions in the CRPF which is too large to handle. Hence, this creates fault in administration of the force and in return hits its efficiency.
• Nexus of Maoists with corrupt politicians, bureaucrats and mafia have compromised internal security, eroding of forces authority and affects integrity of system.
• One of the most important reasons for increasing inefficiency in the force is the shortage of weapons for the force. On one hand, the Maoists use no-less than AK-47 whereas the CRPF has shortage in even 9 mm bullets which is its primary ammunition, causing them to run on empty weapons which affects their operation capabilities.

These are the reasons which may be responsible in some ways to the recent Sukma and other ambushes and attacks on our soldiers. The government should not turn deaf ears to these issues and should provide it with adequate remedies.