Union Ministry of Home Affairs has certified 5 new battalions of anti-riot and crowd control Rapid Action Force. These new battalions will be positioned at Varanasi UP, Hajipur- Bihar, Jaipur- Rajasthan, Mangalore- Karnataka and Nuh- Haryana. With these, the sum number of Rapid Action Force battalions in the nation has expanded to fifteen. Varanasi will be 4th base of Rapid Action Force in UP- the 3 others being in Meerut, Allahabad and Aligarh.

Rapid Action Force

• Rapid Action Force is a specially trained and armed wing of Central Reserve Police Force- CRPF, the nation’s major paramilitary force or Central Armed Police Force with more than three lakh personnel.
• It was fashioned in 1992 to tackle riots, riot like circumstances, crowd control, rescue-relief operations and related unrest. It is HQ in New Delhi. Its slogan is ‘Serving Humanity with Sensitive Policing’.
• Rapid Action Force battalions are located in different parts of the nation in order to decrease response time and rush the teams in shortest possible time to counter an occurrence.
• The ten old Rapid Action Force battalions are located in Ahmedabad, Allahabad, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Aligarh, Delhi, Coimbatore, Jamshedpur, Bhopal and Meerut.
• Single Rapid Action Force battalion has gathering of just more than 1,000 staff and it is armed with gadgets and non-lethal weapons including, Tear Smoke Grenade launchers, pump action guns and others to impose security and law and order in case of protests like situations.