By Biswajyoti Das

GUWAHATI, India, May 6 (Reuters) - The government of India's remote northeastern state of Manipur is to arm villagers to help battle guerrilla groups seeking autonomy, echoing a controversial civilian force raised to tackle Maoist rebels elsewhere.

Officials in Manipur have recruited youths from two districts as special police officers and will kit them out with a uniform, food, rifles, and motorcycles and pay them a monthly pay packet of 3,000 rupees ($75).

"The new recruits will help security forces controlling militant activities," Joykumar Singh, the state's police chief said by telephone from the capital, Imphal, on Tuesday.

"More units are in the pipeline in different parts of the state."

But human rights workers expressed dismay.

"This step will not reduce violence, but deepen violence," said Babloo Loitongbam, director of Manipur's Human Rights Alert.

"Arming of civilians in fighting insurgents has not worked anywhere in the country, and we don't understand why the government is making this mistake."

In the central state of Chhattisgarh, state authorities have since 2005 funded and armed an anti-Maoist movement made up of poor tribal people, including children, known as the Salwa Judum or Campaign for Peace.

But the vulnerable and largely untrained villagers have failed to tilt the balance in favour of the state, and their camps have regularly been attacked by the rebels.

In March, the Supreme Court condemned the movement, and said the state would be abetting a crime if the group's members killed innocent bystanders.

India's northeast is home to more than 200 tribes and ethnic groups and is racked by separatist insurgencies.

In Manipur alone, more than half-a-dozen guerrilla groups are fighting more than 50,000 troops, some battling for freedom and others for political autonomy. The conflict has left more than 20,000 people dead.

Singh said about 300 volunteers had already been recruited in the district of Thoubal, and 200 more would soon be signed up from Imphal West.

"They will have to go through medical tests and submit a formal application along with their educational qualifications," he added. (Editing by Mark Williams and Sanjeev Miglani)

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