An army walks on its stomach. Napolean had so famously declared. The Jharkhand police, fighting a tough battle against Naxalites
RANCHI: An army walks on its stomach. Napolean had so famously declared. The Jharkhand police, fighting a tough battle against Naxalites, are realising how correct the French general was.
An advertisement for recruiting 374 cooks has been brought out by the police in one of the worst Naxal-hit states so that they can accompany the forces in their mission. This was because hunger is forcing many a policeman to return to the base camp before tracking down Naxalites in the deep jungles. Jharkhand Police has proposed that cooks accompany forces on operations so they do not have to return to base camp every time.
“If a cook is attached to a company they can set out for operations against Naxalites deep in the jungles and stay there till the operation ended,” inspector general of police (Hazaribagh) BB Pradhan said.
The state government has also advertised for 195 water carriers for police stations and for accompanying the forces. “Operational troops sometimes have to stay in jungles for three-four days and have to carry food with them or come to base camp. This sometimes give the Maoists enough time to escape,” police officials say. “If a cook is there, they will only concentrate on the mission and not about food,” they added.
The cooks will be recruited in 145 police stations in Maoist-affected areas and the proposed Jungle Warfare School in Netarhat for training forces in anti-Naxalite operations. Eighteen of the 24 districts in Jharkhand are naxal-infested and almost every day operations were taken up against them.
In 2007, 157 casualties were reported in 482 incidents of Naxal violence in the state, which was higher than the 124 casualties in 310 incidents in the previous year, making it
one of the worst hit by Maoist violence.
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