CHANDIGARH: The controversy regarding dispatch of two battalions of Punjab police commandos to Assam to fight insurgents has taken a curious tum as different authorities have maintained different positions during the past few weeks.

While the Punjab police chief K_P.S. Gill is reported to have said that the two battalions would be dispatched within a week the chief minister Beant Singh said last Week that the proposal was still under consideration. Meanwhile the Assam chief minister Hiteswar Saikia has claimed: that Beant Sangat had assured him that he would dispatch the two battalions by July.

Sources in the home department here said that Punjab had not yet received any formal request from the Assam government. However they said that the legal and financial aspects of the proposal were being examined. Till the financial aspects were resolved the Punjab police commandos could not be despatched. Moreover the commandos from the state could not be despatched without the clearance of the Union home ministry senior officials said. Interestingly a number of CRPF battalions are still deployed for internal security duty in Punjab and the state is reluctant to part with them. If the state can relieve its commands the Union government may want the CRPF battalions to be relieved first as there is a constant demand for the force from a number of states.

The state government is willing to send two of the five battalions of the para-military force India Reserve as the force is raised with Central government assistance and can be deployed anywhere in the country sources say. The Punjab police commandos and the India Reserve are combat forces and said to be equally competent says a home department official. Moreover the

India Reserve personnel need to be exposed to different terrain and Assam would provide them the best opportunity he adds.

What holds back the sending of the police commandos is the financial implication. In case of the police commandos the average annual expenditure on one battalion is Rs 8/crore while in the case of one battalion of the Central para-military force it is justRs4.5 crore out of which Rs 3 crore is paid by the Union government.

Article extracted from this publication >> July 1, 1994