By Oken Jeet Sandham
KOHIMA, Oct 14 (NEPS): Nagaland Police has now got its own Police Commando Unit and they are ready to serve as and when their services are necessary.
Disclosing this to NEPS here at his official chamber, State Director General of Police K Kire, IPS, expressed his happiness that four companies drawn up from three IR Battalions have already completed their “Commando Course” along with Punjab Police. Two companies would complete their course by the end of this month, he added.
Stating that the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) had given importance of raising “Commando Units” from those IR Battalions raised after 2007. “So at least we could raise three IR Battalions since 2007 and as such we are required to train our IR troopers of Commando course as per the MHA directives,” Kire narrated.
The DGP also narrated that the importance of raising such Commando Unit had come from the MHA after the Mumbai terror attack. He said the Commando troopers would be kept in their separate battalion and their services would only be used when there was “emergency-like-situation.”
Kire also stated these trained Commando troopers should be provided some special arms. “For which, we have taken up the matter with the MHA,” he added.
Talking about modernization of State police force, the DGP revealed that a fixed amount of Rs 30 crore was given to each state. The State also got Rs 30 crore and out of which Rs 1.5 crore was given to Home Guard, while the rest were utilized for construction of outposts, quarters, barracks, purchasing of arms and ammunitions, communication sets, transport, etc.
Asked if the amount was sufficient for modernizing the State police force, Kire stated “Rs 30 crore sounds quite big” but once it was divided, hardly any money was left. “It is not enough,” he pointed out.
He also disclosed that they did not have planned to raise more IR Battalions in near future. He explained that initial costs of raising IR Battalions were borne by the MHA but the subsequent maintenance of the Battalions was the state’s lookout. “It is really a heavy financial burden for us,” he said.
The DGP was visibly happy when asked about his comment on the news of Naga Mahila IR troopers’ performance that earned accolade from many outside media. “We are very proud of them,” he said. “I sent a message to the Commandant congratulating him and advising him that our girls to be more dutiful.”
Kire also said the services of the Naga Mahila IR troopers were also demanded again by the MHA for the Bihar election. “But we told them that our Mahila IR troopers were sent to Delhi for the Commonwealth Games duty right after their competition of second phase of training and they are yet to start their third phase of training,” he stated. So they requested the MHA to relieve them to complete their remaining training, he added.
