Terming the Rs 1,450.29 crore claim made by Centre towards deployment of Central Police Forces in Maoist-hit areas of Odisha as "unreasonable", the state government today sought waiving off of the charges.
"It is the responsibility of both the Union Government and the states to fight Left Wing Extremism in various parts of the country, including Odisha, by pooling together their resources," Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said in a letter to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh.
Noting that the Maoist problem has spread to large areas of the country, Patnaik said deployment of Central Forces was essential to supplement efforts of the state police to counter Left Wing Extremists.
The Odisha government had also recruited, trained and deployed a large number of police personnel for anti-Maoist operations by bearing huge expenditure from the state exchequer, he said.
Referring to a letter received from the Director General of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) on December 29, 2014, asking the state to pay Rs 1,450.29 crore as deployment charge of CRPF/RAF detachment up to September 30 last year, Patnaik said he had requested the former Union Home Minister, in a letter on October 1, 2011, to consider waiving of the charges.
In response, the Home Ministry in a letter on January 16, 2015, had said there was no provision for waiving off of deployment charges as per prescribed norms till further orders were issued by the Central Government.
Stating that Centre's claim of Rs 1,450.29 crore appeared to be "quite unreasonable", Patnaik said in the present internal security scenario, joint and coordinated operations of state and Central Forces were the need of the hour and such demands should not take precedence over the urgent operational requirements so far as deployment of Central Forces was considered.
"I would, therefore, request you to look into the matter and consider waiving off the charges on account of deployment of Central Forces altogether," the Chief Minister said in his letter.
