Cops beef up security across state borders

In the wake of the Dantewada attack on security forces by Maoists, the Central government is intensifying the anti-Naxal operations sending five battalions of the Border Security Force to Malkangiri district in Orissa.

Anti-Naxal operations on the Chhattisgarh-Orissa border have intensified over the last couple of months even as security forces have been engaged on the Chhattisgarh-Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra-Chhattisgarh and West Bengal-Jharkhand border.

The Union home secretary, Mr G.K. Pillai, on Friday termed the Dantewada attack as a one-off attack indicating there will be no halting of the operations by security forces who are trying to secure areas in control of the Maoists.

“The Planning Commission had given a presentation to the MPs about development schemes. Focus is entirely on flagship programmes of the government of India as implemented in the districts,” Mr Pillai said.

The MPs spoke about their perspective on the issue and what role they could play in ensuring the better monitoring of various programmes,” he said.

The Union home minister, Mr P. Chidambaram, on Friday called for better utilisation of government funds being pumped into 35 districts worst-affected by Maoist violence.

In his first meeting with the MPs of the 35 districts, including West Medinipur district of West Bengal, Mr Chidambaram sought their cooperation and took their views to handle the Maoist problem in these districts.

A fresh action plan to push the development initiatives in the 35 districts is expected to be drawn up by the government on the basis of suggestions given by the MPs, which would be presented to the Chief Ministers of the Naxal-affected states.

The meeting on Friday remained inconclusive and another meeting would be held in May covering all constituencies and districts affected by Maoist violence, an official said.

Some MPs raised concern over Naxal leaders gathering wealth through extortion while others stressed that security force personnel should learn local dialects to enable them to interact better with the local people.