After the report of the Rammohan Committee on the Dantewada incident in which 75 CRPF jawans were killed by Maoists revealed there was a serious lapse on the part of state police since only one of its policemen accompanied the CRPF, the Union home ministry, in an advisory to all Naxal-affected states, said they should provide the central paramilitary with a matching ratio of state police personnel.

In Bengal, however, the CRPF officers say the ratio of the state police to their force remains grossly unmatched.

A senior CRPF officer said in all the operations in the three Naxal-hit districts, the state authorities sent as low as 3 to 4 constables with three platoons of CRPF, constituting roughly 75 jawans. “The ratio works out to 3:25, which disregards the guidelines and the instructions from the Union home ministry,” he said.

“We have repeatedly asked the state government match the numbers when we are going for an operation. The CRPF personnel coming from different parts of the country are neither familiar with the local people and language nor they know much about the terrain and routes in the villages. Most of the time, they are vulnerable to being misguided or trapped,” said the officer.

When contacted, DGP Bhupinder Singh said, “The directive of sending the state police in a ratio of 1:1 is impractical and it is not possible for us. We requested the Union home ministry to reduce the ratio to 2:1 and it agreed. We always try to follow the 2:1 ratio but there are exceptions.

Vijay Raman, Special DG, CRPF, said: “We asked for adequate forces from the state police while the CRPF jawans are moving into the forests. We never insist on such issues since the state government has its limitations. With the civic polls round the corner, the forces have to be deployed there too. But we certainly expect the state should give whatever is possible. Otherwise, operations cannot be successful.”