The Orissa chief minister Naveen Patnaik today demanded more funds from the Centre for police modernisation.
Addressing the conference of the chief ministers on internal security chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi, Patnaik said, both the Centre and states should put their resources together to fight the growing menace of naxalism and terrorism.
Expressing his concern on the resurgence of Left Wing Extremism (LWE) in Orissa and the adjoining states, he underlined the need for strengthening the intelligence set up.
He said, the state government is taking steps to fill up the vacancies in police. While 5000 have been recruited to the state police force, 2700 posts were filled up by way of promotions. The state government targets to recruit 10,000 more personnel by the end of this year.
Since a well trained police force is the minimum requirement for any modern society, Patnaik requested the Union government to assist Orissa for training and capacity building of police forces, on a matching contribution basis. This can be provided either under the police modernisation scheme or a new scheme. The chief minister also urged the Union home minister to give training slots in Central Police Institutions for basic training of 4th and 5th India Reserve (IR) battalions to make these units operational at the earliest.
