Six days after they went on a hunger strike against the inhuman conditions in their quarters and against rules that had kept them on anti-Naxal posting for eight years,the state government on Tuesday night transferred all the 58 jawans of India Reserve Batallion (IRB) 1 out of the Shilda camp in West Midnapore. The IRB contingent has been replaced by jawans of Straco,another armed police force of the state government. The jawans,who had questioned why they couldnt get regular postings after a gap like other police officials,have been shifted back to their headquarters at Durgapur. While the revolt had come as an embarrassment,sources in the Home Department claimed the government had felt it wouldnt be proper to keep the contingent of a paramilitary force that had once defied authority deployed against a dedicated band of ultras like the Naxalites. Officially,the police brass called the transfer a routine affair. It was an administrative decision, Surajit Kar Purakayastha,ADG,Law and order,told The Indian Express. The jawans are now at Durgapur. We are yet to take a decision on when they will be deployed again, Kalyan Kumar Mullick,Commandant of IRB 1,said. Purakayastha added that the government would do all it can to improve living conditions at camps in Junglemahal. I have not seen the place. But it has been the governments continuous endeavour to improve conditions of the quarters of jawans, Purakayasta said. A CRPF unit once asked to stay at the Shilda camp had refused saying no human being can stay here. Soon after the IRB jawans deployed at the camp for the past one year went on a fast,the strike had spread to other camps of IRB 1. Yesterday it was at 10 pm that we were asked to dress up and leave the place. We are keeping our fingers crossed, said one IRB jawan at Shilda on condition of anonymity.
