The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) is the premier central police force of the Union of India for internal security. Originally constituted as the Crown Representative Police in 1939, it is one of the oldest Central para-military forces (now termed as Central Armed Police Force).
The CRPF came into existence on 27th July 1939. It became the Central Reserve Police Force on the enactment of the CRPF Act on 28th December 1949.
It is India's largest Central Armed Police Force. It functions under the authority of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) of the Government of India. The CRPF Rules, as envisaged in CRPF Act, were framed in 1955 and published in the Gazette of India dated March 25, 1955. Shri V.G.Kanetkar was appointed as the first DG, CRPF.
History and achievement:
During the early 1950s, the performance of the CRPF detachments in Bhuj, the then Patiala and East Punjab state Union (PEPSU) and Chambal Ravines.
Soon after Independence, contingents of the CRPF were sent to Kutch, Rajasthan and Sindh borders to check infiltration and trans-border crimes.
During the Chinese aggression of 1962, the Force once again assisted the Indian Army in Arunachal Pradesh. Eight CRPF personnel were killed in action.
The force also fought in the 1965 and 1971 Indo-Pak wars shoulder-to-shoulder with the Indian Army, both on the Western and Eastern borders.
In the 2001 Indian Parliament attack, the CRPF troopers killed all five terrorists who had entered the premises of the Indian Parliament in New Delhi.
In 2008 a wing called Commando Battalion for Resolute Action (CoBRA) was added to the CRPF to counter the Naxalite movement.
The role of the CRPF and its services rendered have extended beyond the nation's borders as well. The services rendered by the CRPF in Sri Lanka as part of IPKF, as part of the UN Peace Keeping Force in Namibia, Somalia, Haiti, Maldives and also in Bosnia speak volumes about the ability, agility, versatility and dependability of the Force to adapt to any conflict-situation round the globe.
(with sources inputs)
