Raipur: Chhattisgarh police will be soon
disarming Special Police Officers in the state as per the
Supreme Court directions which has termed involvement of
tribals in anti-Naxal operations as "unconstitutional".
"We will be soon disarming them. There is no scope of
not doing it," Chhatisgarh police chief Vishwaranjan told PTI
today.
While admitting that non-involvement of SPOs may serve as
a setback to the anti-Maoist operations, the state police
chief, who is the senior-most police officer in the country,
said, "The setback will be temporary and we will try to
overcome it."
The Supreme Court while ordering disbanding of SPOs in
Chhattisgarh, had termed as "unconstitutional" the practice
of deploying SPOs in campaigns like Salwa Judum launched by
the Chhattisgarh government to fight Maoists.
It had criticised support and funding of SPOs in
campaigns like `Koya Commandos` and Salwa Judum, an armed
civilian vigilante group whose numbers have gone up from 3,000
to 6,500 within a year.
The SPOs were being provided arms training and were used
to help the state police and para-military forces in entering
the dense jungles of Bastar, a hotbed of Naxal activities.
They were also being paid a monthly emolument of Rs
2,000 by the state government.
PTI
