LONGEWALA:(On the Indo Pak border), Defence Minister Sharad Pawar, said he favored de-escalation in the tendency to frequently call in the army for law and order problems even in trouble-torn border states of Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab reports PTI. Addressing a series of Sanik Sammelan in the course of his two-day visit to border areas facing Pakistan in Rajasthan, Mr Pawar said he was taking up the issue with the chief ministers of the states. Though army deployment was at present fully justified in Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab, there should ultimately be de-escalation, he added. The minister said local police forces should be involved more in Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab and also para-military forces which had been set up for this task,” It has become rather fashionable for even district authorities that at the first sign of worsening law and order problem, they call in the army”, he said.
The defence minister said it was becoming increasingly “costly” for the defence ministry as such law and order deployments were not budgeted and the entire cost had to be met by the ministry.
Pawar said he would take up with the chief ministers that states which called in the army would have to bear the entire cost of deployment and sustenance as was currently done if the states called in para-military forces like the BSF and CRPF.
But, he asserted this de-escalation did not mean that army would not take part in serious law and order problems, “I can say that the armed forces would play their part to the hilt in curbing major law and order problems”, the minister said adding there could be no compromise on the question of country’s integrity and sovereignty.
He said the armed forces would also like to continue to play their sterling rule in natural clamities like floods and droughts.
Article extracted from this publication >> August 2, 1991
