Union Cabinet approves raising of 17 Indian Reserve Battalions

January 28, 2016

The Union Cabinet has approved proposal of raising of 17 Indian Reserve Battalions (IRBs) in Jammu & Kashmir and 4 Left Wing Extremism (LWE) affected states.
Decision in this regard was taken by Union Cabinet Meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi.
Key facts

17 IRBs includes 5 battalions in J&K, 4 in Chhattisgarh, 3 each in Jharkhand and Odisha and 2 in Maharashtra.
The major thrust in raising these IRBs will be by recruiting local youths. State Government can relax age and educational criteria if required.
In case of 5 IRBs of J&K, 60% of the vacancies for the posts of constables and class IV will be filled from the state’s border districts.
In case of LWE states, 75% of the vacancies of constables will be filled up from 27 core districts under Security Related Expenditure (SRE) Scheme.

About Security Related Expenditure (SRE) Scheme

The Union Government had introduced scheme of Indian Reserve Battalions in 1971. It is a non-plan scheme.
The objective of the scheme is to supplement the efforts of the states to deal with the Left Wing Extremism (LWE) i.e. naxalite problem effectively.
Under it, so far government has sanctioned 153 IRBs in the various states of which 144 IRBs have been raised.
1 IRB in Jharkhand has been converted into Specialized Indian Reserve Battalion (SIRB) which is having 2 engineering companies and 5 security companies.

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