20 IRB units to come up in NE

Imphal, May 14: The Home Ministry has given the green signal for the establishment of 20 new IRBs in the NE region. According to an official statement, two will be in Arunachal Pradesh, two in Mizoram, five in Assam, three in Manipur, two in Meghalaya, two in Nagaland and four in Tripura. It mentioned that under the scheme, the State Government may claim for grant-in-aid instead of loans as advance for procuring the land and constructing the complex. The expenditure made for establishing the battalion will be reimbursed by the Centre under the Security Related Expenditure scheme. Meanwhile, the Finance Commission plans to sanction Rs 71 crs for the upgrading of police administration in the North Eastern State. Under the scheme, Rs 7 crs will be sanctioned to Arunachal Pradesh, Rs 24 crs to Assam, Rs 9 crs to Manipur, Rs 6 crs to Meghalaya, Rs 4 crs to Mizoram, Rs 12 crs to Nagaland, Rs 3 crs to Sikkim and Rs 6 crs to Tripura. The Home Ministry has also released security-related activities in Manipur till December 2001.