New Delhi: To allow its personnel to be near home and be able to spend more time with family and better operational abilities, the Central Reserve Protection Force (CRPF) is undertaking a large-scale exercise to realign more than 130 of its battalions deployed across the country engaged in operations and hard duty areas.
The mega exercise is being carried out after eight years. It was approved by the Ministry of Home Affairs last week.
As part of the realignment, a total of 137 battalions of the force out of the total 248, will be attached with those group centres (GCs) that are geographically closer to their place of deployment, TV9 Bharatvarsh sources said.
Special CRPF battalions, such as those providing VIP security and the anti-riots Rapid Action Force (RAF), will not be part of this process. A CRPF battalion typically consists of more than 1,000 personnel.
With around 3.25 lakh personnel, the CRPF is the country’s largest paramilitary force. Its Group Centres (GCs) are located in various cities, serving as headquarters for about five battalions each.
The concept of GCs, introduced in 1968, was designed to support combat battalions by handling administrative and personnel tasks, allowing these units to remain focused on operations. They operate under the command of a Deputy Inspector General (DIG) rank officer.
Over the years, as the force expanded, battalions associated with a Group Centre (GC) were deployed far from their parent base to address emerging internal security challenges, such as anti-Naxal operations, counter-insurgency efforts in the northeast, and counter-terrorism duties in Jammu and Kashmir, according to a senior officer.
“For example, a battalion belonging to a GC in Kerala would be deployed in Chhattisgarh leading to issues of provisioning, supplies and logistics. The new realignment aims to reduce the time taken and energy spent on these tasks,” an official was quoted as saying by PTI.
The new protocol, set to take effect from December 1, has been introduced due to “large-scale” changes in the force’s deployment over the past two to three years. Units have been withdrawn from Bihar, Jharkhand, and West Bengal and redeployed to “troubled spots” such as Chhattisgarh, Manipur, and Jammu and Kashmir.
