CRPF stops anti-Maoist drive in Bastar: Police

Raipur: The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) has suspended the anti-Maoist campaign in Chhattisgarh's forests following the massacre of 75 troopers, state police sources said Monday.

"That attack has shocked the CRPF men in Bastar," a high level source in the Chhattisgarh Police told IANS. Reached over telephone in Jagdalpur town, a CRPF officer refused to comment.

"I cannot say yes, I cannot say no (to what you are saying)," the officer told IANS. "You may talk to our people in Delhi."

Sources in the Chhattisgarh Police said while their men were continuing search operation against Maoists in the sprawling forested area of Bastar, the CRPF was not giving them the usual support -- for now.

"The anti-Maoist operation has been hit hard after the killing of 75 CRPF troopers April 6," the police source said. "For the time being they are in their camps. No operation from CRPF is on in the jungles now," the source said.

"I hope the CRPF will soon get over the setback and join the police for intensified combing of the forests," the source said.

Seventy-five CRPF personnel and a lone Chhattisgarh policeman were slaughtered by Maoist guerrillas in the forests of Dantewada district in Bastar region April 6 in the worst attack of its kind in India.

Since then, CRPF personnel have complained to journalists, on the condition of anonymity, that weapons provided to them are of poor quality and that some of their camps even lack drinking water.

Among the main CRPF camps are Pollampalli and Dornapal in Dantewada district and Chote Donjar in Narayanganj district.

Bastar region, where the Communist Party of India-Maoist runs a de facto state, covers around 40,000 sq km of mostly forested area inhabited mainly by triabes.

According to official sources, 14 CRPF battalions are deployed in Chhattisgarh. Thirteen of them are based in Bastar in the south while one battalion is in the northern district of Surguja bordering Jharkhand.

Meanwhile, the Chhattisgarh government has raised the ex-gratia payment for government employees and police personnel from Rs.5 lakh to Rs.15 lakh.

The ex-gratia amount will be in addition to a group insurance cover amounting to Rs.10 lakh for each government employee and policeman posted in Maoist-infested area.