Tripura State Rifles’s elite troopers to be deployed for Haryana polls

Agartala: The elite Tripura State Rifles (TSR), which had earlier performed election duties in more than 15 States, besides at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in New Delhi, would be deployed in poll-bound Haryana, a senior official said on Thursday.

The election to the 90-member Haryana assembly will be held on October 21 and the results will be declared on October 24.

“Ten companies comprising over 900 troopers of TSR on Thursday left here for Haryana by train. The TSR personnel would perform election duties in the state as Central forces,” a senior police official told IANS refusing to disclose his identity.

He said that the TSR jawans led by two commandants – Nabadwip Jamatiya and Biplab Deb – would be posted in the election bound State for a month.

The official said that the Union Home Ministry had requested the Tripura government to send the TSR troopers for providing security during the electioneering as part of the Central forces.

Besides providing security during the 2010 Commonwealth Games in New Delhi, the India Reserve (IR) battalions of TSR were earlier sent to Bihar, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Delhi and Jharkhand, and to the Northeastern States, to provide security during the Assembly and Lok Sabha elections.

Trained in counter-insurgency operations, the TSR was raised in March 1984 to deal with terrorism. Seventy-five per cent of its personnel are from Tripura, while the remaining are from across the country.

The TSR has 12 battalions, of which nine are IR battalions. The Union Home Ministry has recently sanctioned two more IR battalions and the Tripura government has started the process to recruit personnel for the two fresh TSR battalions sanctioned.

“The IR battalions can be posted anywhere in the country as and when the Union Home Ministry asks the concerned State Government,” a senior TSR officer said.

The TSR has demonstrated excellent performance in Tripura to tame the four decade-old terrorism phenomenon in the northeastern State. (IANS)