State government seeks Centre's nod to purchase weapons for Naxal-hit areas

Madhya Pradesh government has sought Centre's permission to purchase weapons for Naxal-hit areas from the grant given to them and also demanded a dedicated helicopter for surveillance of regions affected with violence.

"We have demanded from the Centre to give permission for purchasing weapons from the grant given for the Naxal-hit areas as per our requirement," state Home Minister Babulal Gaur told reporters on Sunday.

"Besides, we have also demanded for providing a dedicated helicopter for the areas affected with Naxal violence," he said.

Presently, the Centre provides the state with weapons for Naxal-hit areas, but many a times they are found not working properly and the state has to spend a lot on repairing them. It has also been observed that sometimes certain weapons that are purchased and provided by the Centre are not required by the state police, he said.

If the Centre grants permission to the state to purchase weapons as per its requirement, it will also save lot of money, Gaur said.

The state has also demanded a dedicated helicopter for maintaining a vigil over some Naxal-hit areas owing to the difficult ground terrain. "The helicopter will be very useful in such difficult areas," the minister said.

Gaur also admitted that there is a wide gap between police-public ratio and to bridge it, the state government is recruiting 5,000 constables every year.

At present, the strength of police force is nearly one lakh when ideally it should be 1.5 lakh, as per the state's population, he said.

MP is the only state in the country where only three per cent of the total state's budget is earmarked for police while in other states it is four per cent, the minister said. However, he said the government has allocated Rs 650 crore additionally, but majority of it will go into new recruitments.

Referring to the condition of houses for the security personnel at Police Lines, he admitted that they were in a bad condition and unfit for housing.

"For addressing this problem, the state government is constructing 2,500 houses every year and this number will be raised to 5,000 per year in the days to come," Gaur added.