bureaucrat of the month

CRPF DG K Vijay Kumar IPS, (TN: 1975), speaks to Bureaucracy Today about how the CRPF is strengthening itself for future challenges post gunning down Maoist leader Kishenji in an encounter

Difficult times have led to better preparedness for the Central Reserve Police Force. While 2010 saw one of the deadliest attacks on CRPF personnel in Dantewada district of Chhattisgarh claiming 75 lives, the year 2011 was a shot in the arm. Gunning down Maoist leader Mallojula Koteswara Rao, aka Kishenji, was a chance eked out after a year’s calibrated operations.
“It was a clean and successful operation,” says Central Reserve Police Force Director General K Vijay Kumar. The success must have definitely brought relief to Home Minister P Chidambaram who had been under criticism (especially by the media) for long in the light of casualties. The DG has a different take as he says it is “the vindication of the synergy of training, operations and intelligence. Morale and motivation was also very high.”
He adds, “David Howell Petraeus, the CIA chief, is a well-known General who has also written the counter insurgency manual. He says that the security forces are always behind to catch the insurgent. The other fellow is always ahead so you have to come from behind and try to catch him. This is the situation everywhere so I wouldn’t say that the Indian security forces were behind but it is the typical situation where the guerilla or the insurgent or the militant will always be half a step ahead. It’s the question of how skilfully and how quickly you fill the gap.”
A lot can be attributed to K Vijay Kumar, IPS, for the recent success of the CRPF. We see a seeming change in the CRPF’s will which is more strengthened, its strategy more foolproof and intentions more trig. More like a cut to the chase attitude of the DG himself. A slew of internal reforms are in the offing in the operations of CRPF. Many of them have been sanctioned and some are still under consideration of the Home Ministry.
These reforms, according to Kumar, “will enable the CRPF to be more precise, give the force more depth and make it more agile.” The officer is turning the tide for not only short-term objectives but long-term targets as well. The reforms mostly internal are aimed at better training, building excellence in intelli-gence and restructuring of the force. It ismore like building a self-helpmechanism. Kumar adds, “We are trying to be on our feet. There is always a discussion whether everything can be done internally. I discussed this at length withmy own officers andwe found that nobody can look after your own needs asmuch as you can. The best is to think about self-help.”

MORE EMPHASIS ON TRAINING
Even when there are several proposals being forwarded to the Ministry of Home Affairs building the training infrastructure is the priority. “Training is important. Unless you are trained you don’t know how to execute, you don’t know how to take an ostrich out. A lot of skills are required and skills will come only with preparation. The recent encounter is a result of lot of synergy in training.” In the last 30-40 days, the DG has been to almost 20 training institutions to personally ensure a high standard of training. “The emphasis is on certain tactics, jungle warfare, marksmanship, physical fitness, basic drills the results of which will come eventually in a few months’ time,” says Kumar.