Recruitment of Loktak Protection Force begins

IMPHAL, Jan 13 : Besides discussing the proposal of providing hovercrafts to Manipur police during a meeting at New Delhi with Union Home Secretary Ma-dhukar Gupta in the chair, recruitment of Loktak Lake Protection Force has been initiated.A reliable source informed The Sangai Express that three hovercrafts may be provided to Manipur Police for deployment in Loktak lake to flush out insurgents from the lake.The meeting held at New Delhi on January 9 was attended by Principal Secre-tary (Home) DS Poonia, DGP Y Joykumar, officials of BSF Water Wing, Coast Guard and Special Secretary Home, MHA.After the Union Home Ministry agreed on Manipur Police using hovercrafts, an official team of BSF and Coast Guard came to Imphal in October last year and assessed the practicality of deploying hovercrafts in Loktak lake.Later, the team recommended the Centre to procure hovercrafts with sitting capacity of 20.However, in the meeting held at New Delhi recently, the Union Secretary expressed intention of procuring hovercrafts with sitting capacity of 5 to 10 security personnel. He also suggested that the hover-crafts be placed at a common place for Manipur Police and BSF/Coast Guard.The meeting also agreed to invite willing suppliers for the hovercrafts.Under its police modernisation programme, the State Government has submitted a proposal of Rs 5 crores towards procuring three hovercrafts, conveyed the source.The Union Ministry has also agreed to purchase the hovercrafts after perusing applications from suppliers soon.On the other hand, recruitment process for 375 personnel of the Loktak Lake Protection Force who would use the hovercrafts have already commenced. More-over, five locations for setting up outposts of the Loktak Lake Protection Force have been identified. Personnel of the Loktak Lake Protection Force will be given training in Mani-pur first before sending them for further training outside the State. Moreover, special training will be given to those personnel who would handle hovercrafts along with necessary training for maintenance of hovercrafts, added the source.