Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (SP)

Mangaluru, Oct 8: The central government has decided to set up rapid action force (RAF) units in five new places in the country. Mangaluru has emerged as one of the preferred choices for this distinguished recognition. This happens to be the first ever RAF base to be set up in Karnataka.

RAF happens to be a part of the Central Reserve Police Force. Currently, they are present in Hyderabad, Allahabad, Ahmadabad, New Delhi, Mumbai, Aligarh, Jamshedpur, Coimbatore, Bhopal and Meerut.

The other bases selected by the central government this time are Varanasi, Jaipur, Hajipur in Bihar, and Nuh in Haryana. Although the union government had given its clearance for the creation of five new RAF battalions in the country during January this year, it has now announced the names of places where they would be set up. With these five, the country will have a total of 15 RAF bases.

With RAF bases at Meerut, Allahabad, Aligarh and now Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh with four bases, will be having the highest number of these bases.

The major functions of RAF are to regulate violence and mob rioting. The forces have unique uniform and are specially trained in handling violence and mass trouble. RAF battalions also work along with other forces on humanitarian grounds to tackle situations like earthquake, flood, cyclone and natural calamities. They are equipped by instruments needed to handle large scale violence like pump action guns and smoke grenades etc.

City police commissioner, T R Suresh, said that land for housing RAF office had been identified in Maravoor and Bajpe in the city when submitting proposal two years back. He stated that the commissionerate has not received any information about the above decision, as the negotiations and discussions were held at the government level.