Impact of Modernisation of Police Forces Scheme on Combat Capability of the Police Forces in Naxal-Affected States: A Critical Evaluation

The menace of Left Wing Extremism (LWE), commonly termed as Naxalism and Maoist insurgency, has been categorised as the single biggest challenge to India’s internal security by the Prime Minister. He urged the Centre as well as States, to urgently employ all available resources to cripple the virus of Naxalism.

The Government of India, Ministry of Home Affairs has adopted a multi-prong strategy to deal with the Naxal menace, including an effective security response to curb rebel violence. Due to socio-economic roots of the problem, emphasis is being laid on employing the State Police Forces to tackle the Naxal violence. However, the Government’s security response, have been ineffective in most of the States except a few. Inadequate combat capability of police forces in Naxalism-affected States is considered a prime factor for failing security response. The police forces in most of the States are tremendously capacity-deficient in terms of manpower, resources, training and infrastructure.

This occasional paper attempts to assess and analyse the impact of the MPF scheme on building police combat capability in affected States. In order to realistically assess the impact of the MPF scheme, the paper focuses on the ongoing MPF scheme in various affected States in general, and the States of Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Orissa in particular, which are worst hit and generally considered to be having the least developed police capability.

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