CRPF command centre moved to Chhattisgarh

The strategic antiMaoist operations command headquarters of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) has been shifted from Kolkata to the heart of Chhattisgarh in the wake of 37 men of the paramilitary being massacred by Maoists in a span of less than two months.

The CRPF issued an order on May 4 directing the “immediate” transfer of the command headquarters of the central zone of the paramilitary, roughly seven years after it was shifted from Raipur to Kolkata owing to “logistical and connectivity issues” that gave the West Bengal capital an upper hand over its Chhattisgarh counterpart.

The newly appointed CRPF director general Rajeev Rai Bhatnagar has been asked to ensure that the command begins functioning from Raipur before the high-level meeting of LeftWing Extremism (LWE) hit states here on Monday.

Kuldiep Singh, additional director general of central zone of CRPF, was air-dashed to Raipur from Kolkata with headquarter transfer orders and he took charge of the command on Friday, sources said.

The central zone, an operational field formation, was raised on August 7, 2009, and was tasked to oversee the troops deployment across the ‘red belt’ of LWE-hit states from West Bengal to Jharkhand, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. It was moved to Kolkata in July 2010 for want of better connectivity through rail and air transport for the command office, days after the Dantewada ambush where Maoists had carried out their biggest attack against security forces.