Imphal, May 19 2009: Adopting a twin pronged strategy, one to crush the militants in both the hill districts and the valley areas and the other to gradually withdraw the Assam Rifles and Army from counter-insurgency operations, the State Cabinet which met today has agreed to induct 1600 more police commandos.

The proposed new appointments will be in addition to the already existing strength of 1600 police commandos who are presently deployed in the valley districts of Imphal East, Imphal West, Bishnupur and Thoubal.

An authoritative source while speaking to the press said that once the fresh commandos are inducted, the hill districts will be covered by police commandos to carry out counter-insurgency operations.

The existing police commandos are drawn from the civil police, MR and IRB but the proposed new recruits will be inducted as police commandos.

In addition to this the Cabinet has also agreed to add one company each to the existing 6 MR Bns.

Towards this end 678 new recruits will be selected.

To add to the strength of the State police department, 2400 police Constables will be recruited for posting in the reserve lines in all the districts of the State, barring Imphal West, said the source further.

Another important decision taken by the Cabinet with regard to the law and order situation is the nod given to the excess recruitment of 500 VDFs.

Though a total of 2537 VDFs was to be recruited, an excess of 500 VDFs were recruited earlier.

The source further said that the Cabinet has also decided to release a sum of Rs 10 lakhs to next of kins of Assistant Engineer of the PWD, Keisham Nabachandra who was shot dead by militants on March 31 last year.

The economic package for the Lallumba group of the KCP as part of the ongoing peace parleys also came up for discussion today.

The Cabinet also decided that while ex-gratia for civilians killed by militants or others will stand at Rs 1 lakh, for policemen and Government employees killed in the line of duty, the amount will be Rs 3 lakhs.

For policemen seriously injured leading to disablement, the Government will give a compensation of Rs 75 thousand, while for major injuries with no disablement, the amount has been fixed at Rs 50 thousand.

For those suffering minor injuries the compensation amount has been fixed at Rs 10 thousand.

To ensure the welfare of the labour class, the Cabinet also decided to set up the Manipur State Employment Guarantee Council and Manipur State Employment Fund under the NREGA.

The Rural Development Minister will be the Chairman of the two schemes.

It was also decided that the Singnat to Behiang road, Singnat-Singjol-Dilkha road, Moreh to Thingphai road and Pallel to Chandel to Sugnu to Chakpikarong (18 to 103 Km) road will be handed to BRO from PWD.

Since no Govt offices in the State have procured pattas, necessary work will be taken up to issue pattas to all offices within one week.

Encroachers on the land of the offices will be evicted.

The Cabinet also agreed to open four new ICDS blocks at Khengjoi in Chandel, Vangai range in CCpur, Khoupum in Tamenglong and Nungshong in Ukhrul.

To man the new blocks, the Cabinet agreed to appoint four CDPOs, 93 Supervisors, 4 Statistical Analysts, four LDCs and four peons.

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