CENTRAL PARA MILITARY ORGANISATIONS
Since Independence, the Government of India has set up a number of para military forces to deal with emergencies. The first post Independence specialized para military force created by the central government was the Indo Tibetan Border Police, raised in the wake of Chinese aggression in 1962. Its main role was to provide protection to IB’s posts, secure Indo Tibetan border and check border crimes. The Chinese aggression led to the creation of another force in 1963, the SSB, which is now known as Seema Shastra Bal. Then came the BSF following the Indo Pak war in 1965, with more or less similar role as that of ITBP, but confined to border with Pakistan. Promoting a sense of security among the border population and preventing border crimes, including unauthorised infiltration across the international border, constituted its main charter
With the growth of public sector undertakings in the country, the government set up a Central Industrial Security Force in 1969 mainly to look after the security of public sector undertakings. Its jurisdiction is now being extended to cover even private sector undertakings
Another federal contingency force called the National Security Guard was set up in 1984 (year of operation Blue Star) to handle anti hijack and rescue operations and to support other organisations in dealing with ant terrorist activities The central para-military police registered phenomenal growth in the country during the last few decades. In 1961, only two forces existed – the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and the Assam Rifles (AR). The CRPF then was only 14 battalion strong; while on january1, 2007 it consisted of 201 battalions with a sanctioned strength of 2.6 laks. The BSF was set up in 1965 by amalgamating twenty-five-and-a-half state armed police forces; but by 2007 it had become 157 battalions strong and its total sanctioned strength had increased to slightly more than 2 laks. Other para-military forces at the centre have seen similar expansion. The total combined strength of the central para military organizations on 1.1.2007 was 7,30,827. They constituted less than 50% of the total strength of the state police forces, which were 16,32,651 strong at the end of the year 2006.
This huge expansion, which is still continuing, has been necessitated by an increasing deployment of central para-military forces on law and order duties. The Central Government has been playing a wide and active role in maintaining law and order in different parts of the country, something that was not envisaged by the Constitution of India for them, except in emergencies. Under the Constitution of India, Police and Public Order are State subjects. Law enforcement is a civil function and it is the responsibility of the state governments to discharge this function effectively through their own police forces.
Most state governments have failed to do so. They have neglected the development of their police forces and have instead depended on the central para-military assistance to meet urgent and emergent law and order needs. This heavy dependence on the central assistance has been the result as well as one of the causes of comparatively poor development of the state police forces. If the need to modernize their police forces and develop them as professional, well equipped, well trained and well led organisations had been recognized by the state governments, they would have performed much better even in dealing with terrorist incidents than they are doing now. The state police forces are in bad shape because there is no political will to make them professionally efficient.
Almost all central para military forces have deviated from the original role assigned to them. The BSF as well as ITBP have no longer remained merely border securing forces, while the SSB has now become one on Indo Nepal border. NSG is being used more on providing security to VIPs than on anti terror activities. All organisations, including CISF, have often been deployed on internal security duties.
Expansion has not merely been rapid but also unplanned, leading to various problems of discipline and morale resulting from poor career planning policies. In every organization, there is considerable stagnation of departmental officers, who were taken from a wide variety of sources, including army, state police forces and directly from the market. The central government has kept most top management posts in these organisations for the IPS, which has created discontent with departmental officers often going to courts.
Fairly sizeable sum of money is being spent on the Police. The state governments spent about Rs 22 thousand crores on their police forces in 2006-07, while the central government spent Rs 11 thousand crores on its seven para military organiations. Thus even if the central expenditure on its other police organisations like IB, CBI, BPR&D, NCRB, NICFS, DCPW and on UT Police Forces is not taken into account, the total expenditure on the Police in the country was more than Rs 33 thousand crores in 2006-07, not a small sum by any means. This is public money. Are the public getting adequate returns on their money? Considering the climate of insecurity and fear that prevails in the country, the answer is a big No.
