New Delhi | Nearly five years after the Centre approved a new battalion of the CRPF's anti-riot unit RAF to be based in Nuh, the Haryana government finally sanctioned land for it at a time the district witnessed communal clashes, official sources said on Wednesday.
The sanction to hand over the plot of about 50 acres in Indri village of Nuh to the Rapid Action Force (RAF) came earlier this week, the sources told PTI, adding the land was earmarked but a final declaration on its use by the force was awaited for more than a year.
The procedure to take over the land will happen soon, followed by the foundation stone laying ceremony by a dignitary, they said.
The construction of office and housing infrastructure and other basic amenities for the battalion will take a few more years, the sources said.
The Union government had declared in 2018 that five more battalions of the RAF will be raised and they will be based in Varanasi (Uttar Pradesh), Jaipur (Rajasthan), Shivamogga (Karnataka), Hajipur (Bihar), and Nuh.
The RAF, with these five more units, has a strength of total 15 battalions.
The 10 other battalions are based in Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Allahabad, Mumbai, Delhi, Aligarh, Coimbatore, Jamshedpur, Bhopal and Meerut.
The Nuh battalion, officials said, was functioning from other locations including a small unit that was stationed at a police station in the district.
Communal violence began in Haryana's Nuh on Monday over an attempt to stop a Vishva Hindu Parishad procession. The violence later spilled over into neighbouring Gurugram and other places.
Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar said on Wednesday that six
people have died so far in the violence while 116 people have been arrested and 90 detained.
Twenty companies of various Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs), including a dozen of the RAF, have been deployed by the Centre in Nuh and adjoining districts on the request of the state government.
A single RAF battalion has a strength of just over 1,200 personnel and it is equipped with lethal rifles, gadgets and non-lethal weapons like pump action guns, tear smoke grenades, water cannons to enforce security and law and order in case of protests or riot-like situations.
The blue dungaree donning RAF is part of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), the country's largest paramilitary force or the Central Armed Police
Force with over three lakh personnel.
The RAF was raised and made fully operational in October, 1992.
Jaipur | Mobile internet services will remain suspended in four tehsils of Rajasthan's Bharatpur district till Thursday morning in view of the violence in Haryana's Nuh district, officials said.
Prohibitory orders were imposed in two areas of Bharatpur and 10 areas of Alwar district in Rajasthan, they said. Both Alwar and Bharatpur share border with Nuh district in Haryana where communal violence erupted on Monday.
Bharatpur District Collector Lok Bandhu said mobile internet services have been suspended till 6 am on Thursday in Sikri, Pahadi, Kaman, Nagar in Bharatpur. On the other hand, prohibitory orders have been imposed in Kaman and Pahadi, banning any kind of procession or rally in these areas.
He said security force has been deployed at the Bhatarpur-Haryana border where every vehicle is being checked.
Earlier, after the violence in Haryana, mobile internet services in the four areas of Bharatpur were suspended till 6 am on August 2 as a precautionary measure.
In Alwar district too, prohibitory orders have been imposed for 10 days to maintain peace in 10 subdivision areas.
Additional District Collector (ADM) Uttam Singh Shekhawat said the prohibitory orders will continue till midnight of August 10 in the border areas of Haryana, including Alwar, Tijara, Ramgarh, Govindgarh, Kathumar, Laxmangarh, Tapukada, Malakheda, Kishangarh Bas and Kotkasim subdivision areas.
Meanwhile, nine people have been arrested for allegedly vandalising "two or three" roadside shops on the highway in Rajasthan's Bhiwadi on Tuesday.
Police suspected that the incident in Bhiwadi may have been inspired by the communal violence in Nuh. Additional police personnel were deployed in the area to maintain law and order.
Bhiwadi SP Vikas Sharma said that on Wednesday the police had registered a case against 19 people for vandalising shops and nine were arrested. Teams have been formed to arrest the remaining accused, the SP added.
