Govt to raise 300 more battalions of paramilitary forces, police

In a major step to reduce stress on over-stretched police and paramilitary forces, the government today announced that it would raise 300 new battalions for them.

"The government has decided that 300 battalions will be raised, not just for BSF but also for other police forces,"

Home Minister Shivraj Patil told reporters here after inaugurating the 33rd annual training conference of BSF.

He was replying to reporters' questions with regard to BSF Director-General RS Mooshahary's request that 20 reserve battalions be raised for the force.

Patil, however, did not give details about the time-frame for setting up the battalions or the forces which will benefit. Each battalion has around 1,000 personnel.

The BSF and other paramilitary forces have been insisting on raising of more battalions as their personnel hardly get time for training because of almost perennial field duties.

Patil said he had discussed with senior BSF officials about various aspects of training, including physical, weapon, psychological and disaster management which he said were "among the best in the world."

He asked them to adopt modern training techniques to keep pace with the changing security environment.

Patil said some officials had suggested that a police university be set up to undertake research and development activities.

"We shall think about this and other matters," he said. The two-day conference, being attended by all Inspectors General of frontier areas and Directors of BSF's training institutes, will take stock of the force's training programmes and analyse problems connected with it.

Mooshahary said the collective training of the personnel had been adversely affected as the force was "over-committed" to various duties including counter-insurgency operations and election duty.

He said this problem had to be tackled immediately so that personnel on the border become always 100 per cent battle-worthy.