Thursday, March 02, 2006

Government to Appoint Former Army Soldiers to Combat Crime in State

Patna: March 1, 2006

Hit by criticism of failing to check crimes in the state since assuming power over three months ago, the Nitish government on Wednesday, announced its decision to hire 5,000 former army soldiers in the state to go after the most-hardened criminals while also promising to offer an extensive rehabilitation package for those who wished to give up their criminal career for good.

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, while addressing the Bihar Assembly, said that initially his government was planning to recruit more than 10,000 constables and 2,500 sub-inspectors to deal with growing crime in the state. But since this was a long and arduous process, the government resolved to appoint 5,000 former army-men on a one-year contract.

"This will allow us adequate time to hire and train the 10,000 constables and 2,500 sub-inspectors as originally planned while also allowing us to go after the most hardened criminals in the state," Kumar said adding the Director General of former army-men rehabilitation centre in New Delhi has already been approached on the matter.

"We have prepared a package plans for those criminals who are willing to give up their arms and join the mainstream society as good citizens of the state. This package, among other things, also includes Rs. 3,000 per month for their family members in accordance with the surrender policy earlier devised to rehabilitate the Naxals," the Chief Minister said.

Kumar further said that his government had constituted a high-level team to investigate the irregularities in the police recruitment under the former Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) regime.

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