Guwahati, March 2: The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) will replace the army in counter-insurgency operations in the Northeast by September.

Making the announcement at a news conference here today, CRPF director-general J.K. Sinha said as many as 22 battalions of the force were at present undergoing special training for counter-insurgency duty.

They are expected to be ready for deployment almost immediately after the completion of training in August.

The plan to replace the army with the CRPF in the militancy-affected states of the region is in line with Delhi?s one-force-one-task policy, which was adopted in the wake of the Kargil conflict.

The CRPF is at present engaged in counter-insurgency operations in Assam along with the army and the police. They operate together under a three-tier structure called the unified command and headed by the general-officer-commanding of the Tezpur-headquartered 4 Corps.

The paramilitary force has also been deployed along the disputed areas of the Assam-Nagaland border. It operates there as a ?neutral force?.

Delhi recently sanctioned the creation of a new counter-insurgency and anti-terrorist training facility at Dayapur in Silchar on the lines of the army?s Counter Insurgency and Jungle Warfare School at Vairangte in Mizoram.

Sinha said the nucleus of the training facility had been formed already under the leadership of an officer of the rank of deputy inspector-general.

The CRPF director-general was here to monitor the induction of the first batch of surrendered Bodo Liberation Tiger militants into the paramilitary force.

As many as 339 former militants who had laid down arms in 2003 were ?rehabilitated? today.

Sinha said concessions had to be made to accommodate the former militants in the CRPF, given the fact that most of the candidates did not fulfil the criteria for recruitment.

In accordance with the disbanded BLT?s accord with Delhi and Dispur, 1,000 of the 2,682 members who surrendered are to be inducted into various paramilitary forces.

Ex-BLT Welfare Society president Janmohan Mushahary said the CRPF would recruit 550 members, while 300 were assured of jobs in the BSF and 150 in the Assam Rifles. Another 300 former militants would be inducted into the police force, he said.

A delegation from the Bodoland Territorial Council will meet representatives of the Union home ministry in New Delhi later this month to discuss the rehabilitation of the remaining surrendered BLT members.