The state government has also fast tracked setting up of a counter insurgency training centre within the camp area. Two other such training centres are also coming up - in Jalpaiguri and Purulia.

The government has sanctioned Rs 2 crore for construction of a boudary wall and laying of new pipe lines to bring water from the Kansabati river to the Salua camp.

“The entire camp is being cleaned and the condition of the barracks has improved a lot,” a senior police officer told The Indian Express. The governor has been informed about the steps being taken, the officer said.

After the attack on Silda EFR camp on February 15 that saw 24 jawans dead the governor paid a visit at the EFR headquarters at Salua. The family members of the jawans had then apprised the governor of the poor living conditions and lack of security at the camp. Narayanan had assured them he would take up the issue with the state government.

The government has, meanwhile, also built a separate camp for EFR jawans stationed at Silda. The construction of the camp built over a hillock is almost over. An action-taken-report has been submitted to Home Secretary Samar Ghosh today.

Meanwhile, the officer said that they were going to recruit 350 people to EFR in order to replace jawans aged more that 40 years, who are stationed at camps in Left Wing Extremists (LWE) affected area. “The average age of a jawan now in any of our para-military has gone below 40,” he said.

Silda attack: CID files supplementary chargesheet
Days after the ACJM court at Jhargram rejected charges under the UAPA listed in the chargesheet the CID had filed against the 24 accused in the February 15 attack on EFR’s Silda camp by Maoists, the agency today filed a supplementary chargesheet applying the central Act after getting a sanction from the state government.

M D Rezza, the judge at the ACJM court, today accepted the charges under UAPA against the 24 accused which include top Maoist leader Kishenji and Sasadhar Mahato, the elder brother of Chhatradhar Mahato.

On May 24, the ACJM court had rejected the charges under the UAPA against the 24 accused on the ground that the CID had not placed before it the mandatory sanction by the state government.