BHUBANESWAR: Against the backdrop of Covid-induced economic slowdown, depleting treasury and requirement of more funds to address the healthcare crisis, the state government on Thursday urged the Centre to waive charges of Rs 4,561.23 crore towards the deployment of Central armed police forces (CAPFs) in the Maoist-affected districts in Odisha.
Chief minister Naveen Patnaik has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and requested him to direct the ministry of home affairs (MHA) to waive the pending charges towards the deployment of the Central forces in the districts, affected by left-wing extremism (LWE).
Currently, 10 districts (Koraput, Malkangiri, Rayagada, Bargarh, Balangir, Nabarangpur, Kalahandi, Nuapada, Kandhamal, and Sundargarh) of the total 30 districts in Odisha are affected by left-wing extremism (LWE). At present, a total of 48 companies of Border Security Force (BSF) and 34 companies of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) have been stationed in those LWE-affected districts.
Naveen said the LWE menace should be tackled jointly by the Centre and the state. “Naxal violence has spread to large areas of our country. LWE is a national issue and poses a grave internal security threat to the integrity of the nation. This major challenge has to be addressed by both the Centre and state governments jointly,” Naveen wrote to Modi.
Naveen said the state government has been spending from its own scanty resources in creating and deploying security forces amid its tight fiscal situation. Around 15 battalions have been raised and 30,000 posts in the state police cadre created to fight the LWE menace.
“Considering the fact that addressing LWE is an issue of joint responsibility, the state government has been doing a lot to combat the menace. The Centre may appreciate the difficulties of states like Odisha while charging for such deployment of Central forces for dealing with LWE. I request you to kindly consider the matter and direct the MHA to waive the amount,” Naveen said.
In his letter, Naveen said he had requested the Centre in 2015 to reconsider the decision of charging the state government for the deployment of the Central forces. However, the Centre had turned down Naveen’s request and said that there had been no change in the extant policy of the Centre as approved earlier by the Cabinet committee on security.
“All states except the few Special Category states such as North-East, Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh were required to bear full charges for the deployment of CAPFs in their states. Due to the overall constraint of resources, it was not feasible to exempt the State government from payment of deployment charges,” read Naveen’s letter, quoting the then home minister Rajnath Singh.
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