|
|
|
|
Raipur
|3 years ago
Maoist-hit states favour unified command
Monday, 28 August 2006
|
http://www.nerve.in/news:25350013684
|
channel: India
|
|
"At the New Delhi meet, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Andhra Pradesh would seek extra funds to modernize the police, set up battalions trained in guerrilla war and seek military engineers to deactivate landmines, officials here said."
|
|
|
By
Sujeet Kumar
Raipur, Aug 28 - States hit by Maoist violence want the central government to create a unified command and deploy paramilitary forces as well as the air force strategically to battle the leftwing guerrillas.
Home ministry sources said the worst affected states - Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Andhra Pradesh - in particular had been seeking such a unified command to contain the rapid expansion of Maoist influence.
A meeting of 13 states has been convened in New Delhi Aug 30 to hold extensive discussions.
'Leftist extremists can be wiped out only with regular sharing of intelligence among affected states, deployment of security forces at strategic locations and aerial raids to dismantle terror networks in inaccessible and thickly forested belts,' Chhattisgarh police chief O.P. Rathor told IANS here.
In Chhattisgarh, about 50,000 tribal people have deserted their forested villages due to terror threats after the government launched a civil militia to counter the Maoists in June 2005.
The tribals, including men, women and children, live in government relief camps.
'The Maoist 'red corridor', extending from Andhra Pradesh to Nepal, can be cleaned up only with greater and direct involvement of the Indian government in the war on Maoist terror,' Chhattisgarh Home Secretary B.K.S. Ray said.
'The central government should flood the terror zone with troopers and deployment should be perfect and, most importantly, the ground forces should be given an air cover for offensives in areas cordoned off by rebels through landmines,' Ray said.
At the New Delhi meet, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Andhra Pradesh would seek extra funds to modernize the police, set up battalions trained in guerrilla war and seek military engineers to deactivate landmines, officials here said.
'The central government has been dealing with the Maoist problem with utmost seriousness because it has realized the real threat of Maoists to the nation. But rather than helping out the states in patches, it should lead the command directly,' said an expert at the College of Counter-Terrorism and Jungle Warfare school in Kanker district in Chhattisgarh.
|
|
XML feed for 