Team News Riveting
Raipur, December 22
Another company of Tripura State Rifles (TSR), an elite paramilitary force, today reached Bilaspur to be deployed in the mining projects of South Eastern Coalfields Limited (SECL), a flagship arm of the state-run Coal India Limited (CIL).
The SECL has inked an agreement with the TSR for deploying a battalion in its mines. The elite counter insurgency troop, TSR was raised in 1984 and presently has 12 battalions of which nine are India Reserve (IR). One IR battalion comprising 1007 troopers will man the SECL mines. TSR has been deployed in the establishment of oil major ONGC in Tripura and Assam.
The first company comprising 122 personnel had reached in the first week of October. It had been deployed in the Kusmunda coal mines of SECL located in Korba district of Chhattisgarh. Another company reached Bilaspur today and will also be deployed in Kusmunda, the SECL spokesperson said.
Strengthening the security apparatus, SECL has decided to deploy the paramilitary forces in mega projects including Dipka, Gevra, and Kusmunda mines. The mines, which are powered with the most sophisticated heavy machineries, have been giving record output. The three mines account for about 22 to 25 per cent of CIL’s total output.
About 300 jawans would be deployed in Kusmunda, the biggest mine with a capacity of over 50 million tonne per annum. Besides, 70 TSR troopers would be deployed in Manikpur and 30 in Saraipali.
The CISF has been fully responsible for the security in the Dipka and Gevra mines of the company. Once the TSR battalion was fully deployed, the CISF personnel from Gare-Pelma II and III mines and other areas would be relieved and deployed in the Dipka and Gevra area.
In the Kusmunda area, additional 32 departmental security personnel have been made available while 80 home guard personnel are already on duty. CISF has been deployed at all the barriers in the Kusmunda area. Quick Action Force (QRT) has been set by CISF that will monitor the security arrangement round the clock to prevent any untoward incident.
The third and fourth companies will be arriving in a fortnight and will be deployed in the Raigarh area.
