The need for a quicker response to events like the Mumbai terror attack last month may have revived the idea of setting up regional centres of the National Security Guard (NSG) across the country, but as the elite commando force now gets down to working out how to implement the proposal, the enormity of the task stares it in the face.To begin with, the NSG would require a minimum 1,000 acres of land in each of the four cities in which it plans to set up its regional hubs — this would be the very least required to set up training grounds, infrastructure for training and management, residential facilities and office areas. Incidentally, NSG’s garrison at Manesar in Gurgaon, its sole training facility, is spread over an area of 1,600 acres. “We would preferably like to set up a centre close to the airport, but that may not be possible in cities like Mumbai where there are enormous land constraints,” an NSG official told The Indian Express. Currently, NSG’s anti-hijack teams are stationed at Samalkha in New Delhi, which is located close to the airport.According to senior NSG officials, Mumbai and Kolkata will house a regional centre each, while the toss-up for the other two will be between Chennai, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Bhopal. A formal proposal to set up these centres has been moved to the Home Ministry, which will now take up the case for making land available with the respective state governments.But what has the NSG most concerned is the fact that it would need to induct at least 4,000 personnel from the Indian Army and the central paramilitary forces to man the new regional centres. “Each of these four new centres will need to have a strength of around two battalions, roughly 1,000 men, to begin with. With the Army and the paramilitary forces already feeling a staff crunch, it will be difficult for them to spare volunteers for a deputation with NSG,” an NSG official said. Given the current assignments and training regimen for the Black Cats based in Manesar, NSG officials said that there was little possibility of moving any commandos from there to the regional centres. “We are looking at inducting new personnel who can be trained at Manesar by the time the regional centres come up,” the official explained.The NSG — which draws all of its strength from the central paramilitary forces like CRPF, CISF, ITBP and BSF and the state police forces — already has around 50 per cent vacancies in its Special Rangers Group (SRG) and around 20 per cent vacancies in the Special Action Group (SAG). While SAG comprises men from the Indian Army, the SRG is made up of personnel from the paramilitary forces. Sources said that the greatest shortage of personnel from paramilitary forces was in the ranks of inspectors and sub-inspectors while from the Army side, the staff crunch was in the ranks of majors and captains.
