Kolkata: In view of increasing and diverse operational responsibilities of West Bengal police and a requirement to maintain an adequately trained reserve force, West Bengal Police Directorate has proposed creating five new India Reserve Battalions (IRBs) in the state. At present, there are two IRBs in the state at Durgapur in south Bengal and Siliguri in north Bengal.According to the proposal sent to principal secretary of home and hill affairs department, IRBs have been proposed at Alipurduar, Malda, Murshidabad, Hooghly and Diamond Harbour (South 24 Parganas).Benefits of setting up IRBs include augmenting the state’s reserve police capacity, providing readily deployable trained manpower for emergent law and order situations, reducing excessive dependence on district police for prolonged reserve deployment, improving preparedness for large-scale public events and elections, strengthening the state’s response capability during disasters and emergencies, facilitating timely reinforcement of vulnerable or sensitive areas and improving overall readiness of police.In its communication sent to home department, police directorate has proposed that new battalions will primarily perform armed police duties, law and order management, crowd control, riot control techniques, use and handling of authorised weapons and disaster and emergency response.The required manpower strength to create one IRB is 1,007, and hence 5,035 posts in different ranks need to be created for the IRBs to function.District superintendents of police (SPs) may decide the exact locations of the proposed IRBs depending on land availability and operational requirements.
