The Union Cabinet under the Chairmanship of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has approved the raising of 17 India Reserve Battalions (IR Bns) by Jammu & Kashmir and Left Wing Extremism (LWE) affected States. It includes five IR Bns in the state of J&K, four IR Bns in Chhattisgarh, three IR Bns in Jharkhand, three IR Bns in Odisha and two IR Bns in Maharashtra.
The major thrust in raising these 17 Bns. is as follows:
• Local youths will be recruited. To achieve this, the States will relax the age and educational criteria, if required.
• In respect of the 05 IR Bns to be raised by J&K, 60% of the vacancies will be filled from the border districts of J&K for the posts of constables and class IV.
• For LWE states, 75% of the vacancies of constables will be filled up from 27 core districts under Security Related Expenditure (SRE) Scheme.
The Government of India introduced the scheme of Indian Reserve Battalions in 1971. The Government of India has so far, sanctioned 153 IR Bns to various States, out of which 144 IR Bns have been raised and one IR Bn in Jharkhand has been converted into Specialized Indian Reserve Battalion (SIRB) having two engineering companies and five security companies.