New Delhi, Dec 15 (PTI) The CRPF has sought the government's sanction for inducting a fresh battalion comprising over 1,000 personnel for its growing task of VIP security, officials said on Wednesday.

The paramilitary force at present guards around 75 high-risk personalities including Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Congress president Sonia Gandhi, her children Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi and former prime minister Manmohan Singh and his wife Gursharan Kaur.

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Official sources said the force has sought to induct one more battalion for its VIP security unit that provides an armed cover to the protectees.

It has five battalions earmarked for this task currently and its units are based across the country to accompany the VIP during their domestic travel.

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Each CRPF battalion has just over 1,000 personnel and its VIP protection units are armed with sophisticated guns like the MP5 and ballistic protection armour.

The Union government had made it clear a few years back that the Central Reserve Police Force and the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) will form the backbone of VIP security duties under the command of the Union home ministry.

The CRPF, officials said, is also in the process of inducting more bullet-resistant vehicles in the medium, light and large category of four-wheelers they use for operational and administrative tasks.

These vehicles will be distributed across the three major theaters of opera where the CRPF is deployed -- Left Wing Extremism affected states, counterterrorist operations and law and order duties in Jammu and Kashmir and counterinsurgency operations in the north eastern states.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)