Centre mulls national highways protection force

Mukesh Ranjan

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, June 26

With the substantive increase in the traffic on national highways (NHs) in the country, the Centre is now considering setting up a special force to meet challenges relating to crime, traffic control and rescue operation.

Stating this, a senior official of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said, “The Ministry of Roads and Highways had proposed to raise a new force under its own administrative control on the lines of the Railways Protection Force. A note regarding this had come to us for consultation.”

The MHA, however, rejected the proposal as it was proposed, but “agreed to look for ways to find a workable measure to be taken, as it involves states and their jurisdiction”.

“Talks and discussions are going on with the Ministry of Road and Highways. After several rounds of meeting, it has been decided to build the entire apparatus of security, which involves policing, traffic management and rescue operations,” the official said.

As officials shared the details relating to the development, it was found that the MHA, before consulting the states, is working on three options, which include raising a force on the lines of the Government Railway Police (GRP) by sourcing personnel from the state police within their respective territories, giving the entire responsibility to the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) or raising a separate force only for NHs.

The reason

• MHA officials are of view that there’s a need to have a dedicated force to man the highways given the inter-state nature of the network, frequent protests and blockade of such roads
• “Highways are not broken into state boundaries and several things happen there, which often acquire inter-state dimension requiring response from a unified command,” an official said