Madhya Pradesh

Bhopal: Aimed to having a strong grip over Maoist-hit districts - Balaghat, Mandla, and Dindori, the Madhya Pradesh government is in the process of establishing an unarmed force - the Vishesh Sahyog Dasta (Special Support Squad) - in the region. The 'Dasta' would be a non-policing staff of local tribal youths, who will be given special training by the police and will be tasked to keep close watch on activities of suspects and to pass the information to the security forces secretly through a channel set up. The structure will be in the line of area commander, zonal incharge and a central command. As per the officials, local tribal youths will be given most priority on the line of Chhattisgarh's District Reserve Guard (DRG), but the working pattern will be completely different. The functioning of the new group be directly supervised by the state police's Intelligence Department. The process of recruitment has already been initiated as an experiment in one of these three districts that are covered under the 'Security Related Expenditure (SRE)' scheme, which funds focused operations against the rebels in 70 LWE-affected districts in 10 states. In its classification list released in 2021, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs included Balaghat district of Madhya Pradesh among the '25 Most Affected Districts' across eight Indian states. In addition, Mandla was identified as one among the 'Districts of Concern' among eight districts from six states. According to IGP Intelligence Anurag, the idea of the 'Vishesh Sahyog Dasta' is to connect the tribals living in Maoist-hit areas into mainstream of development. The new system will also be utilised for implementing community policing, and the youths will be encourage to join police and security ...