CRPF chief usher into 2012 with troops in Bastar forest

Raipur: CRPF troops deployed for anti-naxal operations in Bastar region of Chattisgarh were in for a pleasant surprise when they found their chief K Vijay Kumar in their midst to launch a New Year’s eve strike. Kumar reached a Central Reserve Police Force(CRPF) post in the jungles of Narayanpur district unannounced on 31 December and immediately constituted a team of officers and troopers to lay a midnight ambush.[caption id=“attachment_170216” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Reigning the forest. Image courtesy PIB”]  [/caption] The troops, who could not believe their eyes on seeing their top boss among them on New Year’s eve, greeted him with shouts of ‘Bharat Mata ki jai’ as they proceeded for a night-long ‘cordon and search’ operation which lasted till the the wee hours of 1 January. During his 24-hour stay in the area, Kumar also addressed the troops who came from nearby locations to usher in 2012. A CRPF officer said today that Kumar made the plan to visit the troops in order to boost their morale even though he was on an official leave and was supposed to visit Coimbatore. The CRPF DG also decorated Chhattisgarh Police Inspector General (IG) TJ Longkumer with the ‘DG disc’ medal in recognition of his services in anti-naxal operations and help given to the Central force which has deployed close to 70,000 troops for these duties in various states. Kumar, a 1975-batch Tamil Nadu cadre IPS officer, was appointed as the chief of the country’s largest paramilitary force in October 2010 at a time when the morale and efficiency of CRPF was low after 75 men were killed in a Maoist ambush in Dantewada. Apart from participating in several security operations, Kumar is credited with eliminating forest brigand Veerappan in 2004 while he was heading the Tamil Nadu Police Special Task Force. PTI