Bengal to request for a commando unit from Centre

Even before the Union Home Ministry has sent a formal proposal to the state government requiring land for setting up a NSG hub in the state...

Even before the Union Home Ministry has sent a formal proposal to the state government requiring land for setting up a NSG hub in the state, the state government is writing a letter to the Centre requesting it to set up a commando unit in West Bengal.

Following the Mumbai terror attack, the Centre has decided to set up NSG hubs in four metropolitan cities. While the names of Kolkata and Mumbai have been finalised, the Centre is yet to decide on the two other cities where the hubs will be set up.

“We want a NSG unit comprising nearly 300 commandos, housed in barracks, which can be set up on a small area. It will be like a CRPF or CISF unit stationed for emergency operations. We don’t want a training centre like the one situated at NSG headquarters at Manesar. We are sending a letter to the Union Home Ministry,” a source at the Writers’ Buildings told The Indian Express.

A senior police officer confirmed it. “We just need a small contingent of 300 NSG commandos. They can be replaced every three or six months from Manesar,” he said. The government has also written to the Centre on setting up of a federal investigating agency. “We have told the home ministry that it should go ahead on the issue of such an agency only after consulting all other states,” Home Secretary Ashok Mohan Chakrabarti said on Monday.

Incidentally, the Left government was earlier opposed to the Centre intervening in state subjects like law and order. But with terrorism posing a serious problem to the security, the state government has accepted the Centre’s decision of setting up an NSG unit.