The Centre has agreed to provide 2,000 sophisticated rifles and 15 bullet proof armed carriers to Chhattisgarh to combat increasing naxalite activities in the state.
Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil has agreed to provide 2,000 Indian Small Arm System range rifles and 15 bullet proof armed carriers to Chhattisgarh, official sources told PTI on Wednesday.
The Centre has also asked the state to speed up formation of two India Reserve Battalions in the state, which have already been sanctioned by New Delhi, the sources said.
Chief Minister Raman Singh had appealed to the Centre in the meeting on naxal menace in New Delhi on Monday to replace second hand weapons, provided to the state in 2000, with INSAS range weapons. He said that without force and logistics, no state can fight an organised force like the Maoists effectively, the sources said.
The nod comes after requests by the state government, following the killing of 24 security personnel in a landmine blast triggered by the Maoists in Bijapur police district on September 3, they said.
State Home Minister Ram Vichar Netam had termed it a 'war-like situation' and asked the Centre to provide more force and latest equipments to combat the left wing extremism in the state, immediately after the Bijapur landmine blast and increased naxal activities in the state.