870 troops join CRPF to be deployed for anti-Naxal ops

The troops, comprising constables, were commissioned into the country's largest paramilitary force after a 44-week gruelling training at the Additional Training Centre of the CRPF in Greater Noida.

CRPF chief K Vijay Kumar, while addressing the troops during their passing out parade, said that with today's graduation ceremony, the personnel should be ready to dedicate their lives to the charter of the force.

They will be deployed in the toughest areas where the force operates, an indication to the Left Wing Extremism theatre.

The 873 young recruits, in the age group of 20-23 years, will now be sent to the Naxal-affected regions and other insurgency-prone states for a preliminary training and acclimatisation before they are inducted into regular battalions.

During the training, the personnel were trained in unarmed combat, detection and crippling of improvised explosive devices, jungle operations and other areas of policing and paramilitary craft.

In view of the rapid expansion of the paramilitary force, which has deployed close to 80,000 personnel for anti-Maoist duties, the CRPF has created the ATCs within existing establishments to churn out trained personnel at a fast pace.

The job of training till now was done by various Recruit Training Centres of the force spread across the country.

CRPF has 220 operational battalions at present comprising over two lakh personnel.