Odisha seeks waiver of Rs 1450 cr bill for central forces

Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Bhubaneswar, Feb 11:

Protesting the claim of Rs 1450.29 crore made by the Centre towards deployment of Central Forces in the Maoist prone areas of the state, the Odisha government has urged the Centre to waive the amount.

Anti Maoist operation combing securitymen_20100920In a letter to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said it is the responsibility of both the Centre and the states Union to fight left wing extremism in various parts of the country, including Odisha, by pooling their resources together.

Stating that deployment of Central forces is essential to supplement the efforts of the state police to counter the Maoists who hold sway in many states, Patnaik said the Odisha government had also recruited, trained and deployed a large number of police personnel for anti-Maoist operations by bearing huge expenditure from the state exchequer.
Drawing the attention of the Union minister to the letter received by the state government from the Director General of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) on December 29 last year asking the state to pay Rs 1450.29 crore as deploymentcharge of CRPF/RAF detachment up to September 30 last year, the Chief Minister said he had requested the former Union Home minister, in a letter on October 1, 2011, to consider waiving of the charges. Tthe Home ministry, in a letter on January 16 last year, had said there is no provision for waiving of deployment charges as per the  prescribed norms till further orders are issued by the Centre.

Terming the claim of the Centre as quite ‘unreasonable’, Patnaik said in the present internal security scenario, joint and coordinated operations of state and Central forces are the need of the hour and such demands should not take precedence over the urgent operational requirements so far as deployment of Central forces is considered.
He urged the Union minister to kindly look into the matter and consider waiving the charges on account of deployment of Central forces altogether.

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