Naveen begs for waiver of Rs.1,450 cr

Odisha Channel Bureau Bhubaneswar, Feb 11: Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Wednesday requested the Narendra Modi Government at the Centre to waive off Rs.1,450.29 crore charged for the deployment of central forces in the Maoist infested regions of the State.Patnaik wrote a letter to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh requesting him to look into the matter and consider waiving off the charges on account of deployment of Central Police Forces altogether even as the Ministry of Home Affairs vide letter NO.16011/5/2008/PF-V dated 16.01.2014 had intimated that there is no provision of waiving off deployment charges.“I had requested the then Union Home Minister vide my D.O.letter No.UM-5/2011-236/CM dated 01.10.2011 to reconsider the decision regarding charging the State Government for deployment of Central Forces.The Ministry of Home Affairs has also been requested to consider waiving of the charges on account of deployment of Central Forces altogether.In response, the Ministry of Home Affairs vide letter NO.16011/5/2008/PF-V dated 16.01.2014 had intimated that as on date there is no provision of waiving off deployment charges as per the prescribed norms till further orders are issued by Government of India,” Patnaik said in his two-page letter to Singh on Wednesday.“We have received a letter dated 29.12.2014 from the Directorate General, CRPF, claiming an amount of RS.1450.29 crore as deployment charge of CRPF/RAF Detachment up to 30.09.2014.The Directorate General, CRPF has also asked the State Government for payment of the said amount,” said Patnaik in his letter to the Union Home Minister.“The claim of Rs.14S0.29 crore of the Union Government towards deployment of Central Forces appears to be quite unreasonable.In the present internal security scenario, joint and co-ordinated operations of State and Central Security 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 Police Forces is considered,” said the Chief Minister.“I would, therefore, request you to kindly look into the matter and consider waiving off the charges on account of deployment of Central Police Forces altogether,” he added.“As you are aware, the problem of Naxal violence has spread to large areas of our country.It is the responsibility of both the Union Government and the States to fight Left Wing Extremism affecting various parts of the country including Odisha, by pooling together their resources.“Deployment of Central Police Forces is considered essential to supplement the effort of State Police to counter Left Wing Extremism which covers a large number of States.In this regard, Government of Odisha has also recruited, trained and deployed a large number of Police Personnel for anti-naxal operations and is bearing huge expenditure from the State exchequer,” Patnaik submitted.Even though the issue was not settled since long, Patnaik had recently requested the Centre for deployment of two additional battalions of Central force in Odisha to fight the Maoists.