Jaipur, July 24: Criticised heavily for their failure to control the Gurjjar agitation as it spread across the state last month, the Rajasthan Police have decided to train their men in handling crisis situations like that.

Though senior police officers insist the planned training is routine, with R S Dhillon, Additional DG, Armed Battalion, saying they held such camps regularly, sources said this time the whole exercise is designed to equip men to “face a mob, deal with a large number of violent people and handle a crisis situation better”.

The training is reportedly specifically targeted at the Rajasthan Armed Constabulary (RAC).

“It came as a shock to us when RAC personnel, who had been deployed to ensure peace, fled from the spot. It did reflect on their performance and underlined the need for training,” stated a senior police official.

During the Gurjjar agitation from May 29 to June 4, nearly 600 RAC personnel were deployed on the Jaipur-Agra Highway. However, afraid to face the mob, they had stayed away from Piplikheda, where Gurjjar leader Lt Col Kirori Lal Bainsla and his supporters were camping for seven days.

The RAC consists of 12 battalions, of which three are deployed in Delhi. Senior police officers agree that there was a consensus on the need for training, following which the programme had been launched.

Training has already been held for two batches of policemen — from the level of sub-inspectors to constables — at the Rajasthan Police Training School, Jodhpur. More than 100 policemen from across the state were trained between July 2 and July 7 and July 9 and July 14, and now they will hold training sessions at respective district levels for the rest of the force.

“We introduced more drill sessions and also taught them to use latest equipment. Such a training had not been conducted for quite some time now,” said a senior officer of the Training Department.