Raipur: The local edition of a national Hindi newspaper has claimed that officials from the Bhilai Steel Plant (BSP) have asked the Chhattisgarh police to raise and train a dedicated battalion of troopers to protect the plant's captive iron ore mines from Maoist attacks. BSP officials, contacted by this correspondent, have refuted these claims.
The BSP is a unit of the Steel Authority of India Ltd. (SAIL), a public sector enterprise. The plant sources its ore from mines in Dalli Rajhara in Chhattisgarh's Durg district, but BSP officials predict the Dalli mines will remain profitable for another four years at most.
BSP also has mine blocks at Rowghat in south Chhattisgarh in territory claimed by the Communist Party of India (Maoist).
In an interview this May, Maoist spokesperson Gudsa Usendi said the guerillas were categorically opposed to mining operations in Rowghat. The Army had also been allotted a large expanse of forested land to establish a training facility in the same forest belt. “The Rowghat mountains are very important to the ecology of the area and to the Maria tribes who live there,” he said. “The adivasis did not benefit from the mines in Dalli and they will not benefit from mines in Rowghat.”
On Saturday, the Raipur and Bilaspur editions of the Dainik Bhaskar reported that the BSP had offered to pay for the cost of raising, training and deploying an armed battalion (between 800 and 1000 men) of policemen to secure the Rowghat mines. The proposal was supposedly floated on Friday, during a meeting with Minister for Forests Vikram Usendi. The newspaper claimed that the battalion would comprise local youth, would be deployed for five to 10 years, and would subsequently return to the Chhattisgarh police.
While company officials refuted the report, police officials told The Hindu that such a proposal had been doing the rounds.
“We have made no such offer,” said P.K. Sinha, General Manager of the BSP's Rowgath project. “Our job is to mine for ore and make steel, not to raise battalions,” he said.
“We approached the Forests Minister as the mining area has to be deforested for the work to begin, and only the forest department is allowed to cut trees,” Mr. Sinha said, adding that police protection, if any, would be meant for the Forest Department. “All our mines and premises are currently protected by the CISF [Central Industrial Security Force] and this shall continue,” Mr. Sinha said.
“We asked the BSP to approach the Central government for security as all my men are currently involved in anti-Maoist operations,” said Chhattisgarh Director-General of Police Vishwa Ranjan. Mr. Ranjan declined to comment on the specifics of the BSP's proposal. “We will consider all options if Central forces are unavailable,” he said.
Speaking on the condition of anonymity, a senior police officer said the BSP “informally” asked if the police could raise a special battalion if the company bore the costs of raising and training the force. Such a force, the source believed, would be administered by the State police. The source estimated that it would cost about Rs. 50 crores to raise such a battalion. “But we will retain the right to withdraw such a force and redeploy elsewhere if required,” he said.
The source said a private company with mining interests in Chhattisgarh had made a similar proposal but the top brass of the police had not shown interest.
In a telephone interview, Union Home Secretary G.K. Pillai said he was unaware of any plans to raise a State battalion to guard Rowghat, and that his office was yet to receive a formal request for Central forces.
“We have encouraged States to set up State Industrial Security Forces based on the CISF model,” he said, adding that industrial security was based on a ‘user pays' model and it was not unusual for private companies to bear the cost of Central security for industrial complexes.
Describing the CISF's role in protecting private property, Mr. Pillai said the CISF did not have a standing force waiting to be deployed.
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