Punjab govt approves proposal to set up SOG to combat terror

Chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Thursday approved in principle the proposal of the state police to set up elite specially trained Special Operations Group (SOG).
Chandigarh : Chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Thursday approved in principle the proposal of the state police to set up elite specially trained Special Operations Group (SOG) to combat terrorism, infiltration, hijacking, and other sensitive threat situations.
The contours of the proposed “small but effective” 270-member young and dynamic team were discussed at a meeting chaired by the CM. An official spokesperson said the CM also suggested that a small core team from the SOG could be sent to Israel for the latest and state-of-the-art counter-insurgency training.
A formal proposal for setting up the SOG would be placed in the next cabinet meeting. The annual recurring expenditure is estimated to be Rs 5.70 crore. The SOG would be headed by an officer in the rank of additional director general of police (ADGP) with an inspector general (IG) and a deputy inspector general (DIG) rank officer to assist him.
The SOG would be divided into three teams, headed by a SP rank officer (team leader) who would be of less than 35 years of age. The DSP-rank officers in the team would be younger than 30 years and other ranks would be in the age group of 18-25 years, the spokesperson said.
These teams would specialize in tackling different situations and trained both by the army and the National Security Guards (NSG). The CM asked the officials to immediately start the process to identify officers and personnel for the SOG from various police departments. “Once the SOG takes shape, all other specialised units like commandoes and SWAT should be merged with it,” he said.
The spokesperson said that in order to attract the best talent, personnel and officers who join the SPG would be paid higher risk, ration and other allowances, besides being given an insurance cover of Rs 1 crore each. The team would be armed with latest weapons, including LMGs and MP5 sub-machineguns and sniper rifles.