The Meghalaya cabinet today approved a proposal to downsize SF-10, the elite police unit, reducing it to two-thirds of its current strength.
The approved strength of SF-10 is 1,784 but the actual number of police personnel in it is 1,387. The plan is to further reduce it to 905 serving personnel, with the remaining 482 to be redistributed among the district and sub-divisional police forces.
Speaking to the press after the cabinet meeting, Home Minister Lahkmen Rymbui explained the SF-10 was raised primarily to deal with counterinsurgency and natural disasters. With the disaster management authorities having sufficient personnel of their own and militancy largely a thing of the past in Meghalaya, there is no need for so many SF-10 police.
Of the smaller SF-10 of 905 personnel, 183 will remain at headquarters in Shillong, 361 will be based at the Eastern Range HQ in Mawlai Mawiong and a further 361 will be allocated to the Western Range HQ in Tura.
Meanwhile, the cabinet also approved other measures, such as the Meghalaya Private Security Agencies Rules 2021, the proposal for amendment of service rules relating to the establishment of the Directorate of Dairy Development and the proposal for the amendment of the Meghalaya Stamps (Payment of Duty by means of e-Stamping) Rules 2020.