CRPF are well trained to neutralise Naxal/ Maoist Terror

20:11 IST
Reports have appeared in the media that ‘A’ company (45 men), ‘C’ company (12 men) and ‘G’ company (15 men) of the 62nd Battalion of the CRPF that undertook the area domination operations exercise out of the base camp at Chintalnar, district Dantewada, Chhattisgarh had not undergone training. These reports are incorrect and baseless.
‘A’ company underwent the following training:

Pre-induction training from 25.5.2009 to 21.6.2009.

Anti-naxal training from 8.2.2010 to 25.3.2010.
‘C’ company underwent the following training:

Pre-induction training from 25.5.2009 to 21.6.2009.
‘G’ company underwent the following training:

Pre-induction training from 28.2.2009 to 8.3.2009.

Pre-induction training was imparted with specific reference to the area in which they were to be inducted. Anti-naxal training is more intensive training. ‘C’ company and ‘G’ company will undergo anti-naxal training when their turn comes in the cycle. All three companies were well-equipped. After the ambush, the three companies lost the following arms:

INSAS LMGs 6

INSAS rifles 42

SLRs 7

AK rifles 17

2” mortar 1

51” mortar 1

Carbine 1
Total 75

As regards training capacity, CRPF has Counter-Insurgency and Anti-terrorist (CIAT) schools in Silchar and Shivpuri with an annual capacity to train 1829 personnel and 750 personnel respectively. Four more adhoc training schools are being set up, one of which will be for the CRPF. Twenty more CIAT schools, with a total annual capacity of 18,000 personnel, are being set up in five States with MHA’s assistance and one of them has been completed and is operational in Orissa. The Army has trained 10 Battalions of CRPF, 10 Battalions of BSF and 5 Battalions of ITBP prior to their induction in naxal-affected States. OK/lg
Reports Relating to training of CRPF Personnel are Incorrect

Sitting ducks. That’s how Chhattisgarh’s top terrorism expert Brigadier (retd) BK Ponwar describes the security personnel who are fighting the Naxalites in the ‘Red Corridor’. Asked for how long the Naxal menace would continue, Ponwar said: “If a joint operation is launched in the entire ‘Red’ belt, we can wipe out the problem in a year or so.”
CRPF ‘not sticki’ to jungle warfare basics: Top expert on terror says

There is no controversy
Chief of Army Staff in an interview has only confirmed that 62 Battalion was not trained by the Army. This does not imply that CRPF Battalion was not trained at all. Training is a continuous process for all combat men irrespective of arm or service or armed constabulary. Guerrilla Warfare is a very specialised one where combat is limited by terrain and jungles. The use and role of vehicles in thick forsts is limited. To that extent the Armed Forces has training methods evolved from the Burma Campaign of WWII. Field Marshal Manekshaw was gravely wounded. The famous Chindwara training camps of WWII were the best in the world for training of Soldiers. Everyone needs to learn lessons from history and tragedy. Sometimes the training report of Battalions are cooked up on paper to save their own skins, we need to be aware of such unbecoming conduct too because we Indians by nature excel in the art of book keeping or training on paper!

Compensation Package for Martyrs

The Centre Wednesday announced on a compensation package of Rs 38 lakh and last drawn salary as monthly pension to the kin of each of the 75 CRPF men killed in the Naxal attack in Chhattisgarh's Dantewada district on Tuesday. The Government also announced a compassionate recruitment to the kin of the martyrs.
"The kin of the deceased personnel will receive funds of over Rs 38 lakh which includes Rs 15 lakh as ex-gratia from the Central Government, 10 lakh from CRPF risk fund, Rs three lakh as ex-gratia from the State Government, Rs 10 lakh from State Government as part of a scheme for antiNaxal operation and Rs 60,000 from CRPF central fund,” the Home Ministry said in a statement.
Liberalised Pensionary Award (LPA) under EOFP Rules, which is equivalent to the slain personnel’s last drawn salary, will also be provided to them, the statement said. “In addition to the above, one eligible family member will be provided employment in CRPF on compassionate ground as per rules,” it said.
Rs 38-lakh relief to kin of slain CRPF men New Delhi

Why similar compenstion package is not sanctioned for Indian Armed Forces personnel who die defending the Nation?
We salute the CRPF Jawans who have sacrificed their lives. The Home Minisitry's compensation package for the martyrs is commendable and laudable.
This is a God given opportunity to ensure that the 'Faujis' also get similar benefits for dying, spilling blood and getting maimed in guarding the nations borders and the people of India.
The IESM may consider obtaining a copy of the 'Pioneer' in which the benefits for those who died in the Dantewada operation have been published and file a Writ in the Supreme Court to compel the Government to sanction the Faujis, similar financial and allied benefits, as extended to these CRPF personnel.
There should also be an Armed Forces Risk Fund, like the one operated by the CRPF besides other financial ex-gratia and other payments and jobs for the next of kin, forthcoming from the Central and State Governments and other agencies. In fact, lateral induction into other Central, State Forces, Public and State Sector units, etc., should be made a right for the personnel of the Defence Forces, who retire early in life
Secondly, it should be made mandatory that, when soldiers are killed in action and other counter insurgency actions or on internal security duties, their bodies are sent to their native places and their funerals conducted with the necessary military honours and attended by the State and Local Officials and Dignitories.
Veteran Christopher D'Silva

Annual Confidential Reports: Soldier, heal thyself

Tuesday, 6 April 2010
Soldier, heal thyself
India's new Chief of the Army Staff (COAS), General VK Singh, has promised to focus on the "internal health" of the Indian Army. He has his task cut out for him.
by Ajai Shukla Business Standard, 6th Apr 10

Figuring out the state of an army’s morale is easy. All it takes is a couple of drinks with two groups of people: the officers and the enlisted men. If the chatter is mainly about sports and professional competitions; ongoing training; and about how much tougher and smarter they are than their rival units, morale is high. On the other hand, if talk centres on pay and allowances; promotions and postings; and on the world outside the army, you can bet money that morale is low. Applying this yardstick to the Indian Army I believe the morale of officers is low, while that of the jawans is high.

In this gloomy assessment I have illustrious company. The new Chief of Army Staff, General VK Singh, on assuming office on the 1st of April, has wisely identified the army’s “internal health” as his key focus. Pointing out that an internally vibrant army would easily swat aside external threats, the army chief has promised to revitalize traditions, core values and the army’s ethos.

Earlier chiefs, some as well-intentioned as General VK Singh, have embarked on similar paths. General K Sundarji, on taking over as chief in 1986, wrote to army officers individually, urging them to follow their professional convictions and promising to tolerate dissent. But that led nowhere as actions failed to follow words. Today, as the new chief implicitly accepts, the army has become a personality cult where officers either conform to the inclinations of the boss or get weeded out. Originality and eccentricity, those priceless attributes of a successful military leader, have been rendered extinct by a dull, humourless routine that is set --- Congress Party fashion --- by what the boss thinks his boss wants.

Keeping the officers in line is a terrible God called the Annual Confidential Report before which even the brightest and most capable officer must kneel or be scythed down. While annual reports are an evaluation tool in many professions, the army has accorded the ACR absolute control of an officer’s career. Considering that this primacy is born of the army’s laudable quest for an impartial, empirical evaluation system, it is ironic that the ACR has turned into a monster of subjectivity. If the boss is unhappy with an officer --- for any reason whatsoever --- a single lukewarm ACR can sink a brilliant career.

Dismantling this tyranny, and unlocking the potential of his officer corps, is the task ahead for General VK Singh. This is easier said than done. Blocking any radical change is the tribal ethos of the Indian Army. An officer belongs first to his regiment or battalion; only after that is he an Indian Army officer. An army chief’s first duty is towards the regiment and battalion that nurtured him; reforming the army conflicts with the role of regimental patriarch.

When General JJ Singh, an infantry officer from the Maratha Light Infantry, took over as chief, the honour guard that welcomed him to South Block was from the Marathas. So was his aide-de-camp and most of his personal staff. During his term Army Headquarters strengthened the infantry-friendly promotion policies of his infantry predecessors. The tenure of his artillery successor, General Deepak Kapoor, saw the Corps of Artillery quickly muscling out the infantry as the flavour of the month. Promotion policy tilted in favour of the artillery. Upwardly mobile artillery officers were quickly posted into friendly environments, under “friendly” superiors, to ease their paths towards higher rank.

These are only the most recent examples of the army’s longstanding patriarchal tradition that General VK Singh can now embrace or dismantle. A key step would be the creation of a clearly enunciated promotion policy, printed as a manual and sanctioned by the government, to ensure that each successive chief cannot tinker with the policy to suit his constituency. Today, 63 years after independence, the military has no promotion manual; policy exists only in a constantly revised torrent of letters from the Military Secretary’s branch.

The other major change that General VK Singh could implement is the reversing of promotion quotas to higher rank: the “Mandalisation” of the army as it is evocatively referred to. From the institution of the Prussian General Staff in the early eighteenth century, professional militaries have employed the criterion of merit alone to select their senior command. For over half a century, so did the Indian Army; but recently, in a burst of patrimonial fervour, quotas were instituted to ensure that each combat arm got its share of the senior ranks. Initiated by artillery and infantry chiefs to safeguard the interests of their officers, the quotas are now favouring less talented officers of other arms.

Few chiefs would voluntarily divest themselves of power but, paradoxically, the institution of the COAS would be greatly strengthened by transparency and the absence of discretion in promotions and postings. It would also free army chiefs from accusations of prejudice; a lever that MoD officials --- and in one well-known case, a defence minister --- have successfully employed to demand favours for their own candidates.
Posted by Broadsword
Ajai Shukla: Soldier, heal thyself: Business Standard
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