There is no scarcity of funds for naxal areas: MHA

New Delhi: The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has contradicted certain media reports which said that the lack of financial resources were the reason behind Sukma incident in Chattisgarh in which 26 CRPF personnel were ambushed to death by left wing extremists on April 24 last.

The MHA , in a release, has quoted figures and said that the funds released for security related expenditure scheme has increased from 575 crores in 2011-12, 2012-13, 2013-14 to Rs. 675 crores in 2014-15, 2015-16, 2016-17

MHA has ruled out scarcity of police personnel in Chhattisgarh and said , in addition to 45000 central forces, over 20,000 state Police personnel are posted in Bastar region and recruitment is ongoing and continuous process. The Ministry has claimed in this report that Chhatisgarh police forces are well equipped and there is complete co-ordination between centre and state forces. In fact 2016 has been most successful year in anti -LWE operation and also cited about few details of Naxal attacks which were neutralised in this year by forces.

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In the incident, the CRPF jawans were martyred when the Naxals ambushed on a road opening party (ROP) of the security forces at Kotacheru village in Sukma district of Chhattisgarh.The attack was performed with IED (Improvised Explosive Device). This attack took place in the dense forests in Bhejji at around 0900 hours on last Saturday. The patrolling team of CRPF’s 219 battalion was out for a road opening task near Kotacheru village. Total 112 security personnel were part of the patrol party. The Naxals also looted ten weapons and two radio sets from the deceased.

There was a criticism in certain sections of media after this incident, against which MHA has released this clarification.