Operation against Maoists will continue in Odisha: DGP

Rourkela: Director General of Police (DGB) Kanwar Brajesh Singh on Sunday said operation against the Maoists will continue in Odisha.

Briefing newsmen after presiding over a high level review meeting on Maoist situation in the state at the district police headquarters here, Singh said the killing of two top Maoist cadres by the Rourkela police, during a combing operation launched in the last week, is a major success for the state police.
“I congratulate my officers for their success against the Maoists who had infiltrated into the Odisha border during the Panchayat polls in the neighbouring Jharkhand”, Singh informed.

He also laid emphasis on inter-state coordination to effectively deal with the Red Rebels.
Stating that the left wing ultras are active in 11 districts, he said the state police would continue its operation against them as before.

The DGP said for effective operation against the Maoists, the approach of the state police would be two-fold—to continue operation against the ultras to flush them out of their area of operation and second, and second, to take maximum local area development in the Maoist prone areas.
Replying to a question on the rate of prosecution, Singh said “We had a meeting in this regard. We have decided to improve the conviction rate so that the detention of the criminals would be extended further.

He also informed that there is a large number vacancy in the police department due to court order and other litigations.

“I hope the problem would be sorted out in a couple of months after which the process of recruitment would begin to fill up the vacant posts”, he added.

Director (Intelligence) Sunil Roy, IG (Intelligence) DS Kutte, IG (Operation) Soumendra Priyadarshi, IG, (Southwestern range) RK Sharma, Sundergarh SP, R Prakash, Keonjhar SP Kavita Jalan and senior police officials of both the districts were present at the meeting.