Police gear up to tackle Naxal threat ahead of 2019 polls

Koraput: Ahead of the general elections, top police officials of Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Chhatisgarh and Telangana met today to chalk out strategies to tackle left wing extremism (LWE) threat in Maoist-infested areas.

An inter-state coordination meeting of top cops chaired by Odisha South-Western Range DIG, Himansu Lal was held at the office of the Koraput SP in Jeypore. Senior police personnel and SPs of bordering districts of the states took part in the meeting.

According to sources, discussions were held on ways to curb left wing extremism through better inter-state cooridination, intelligence sharing, strengthening of surveillance, movement of cadres, arms and ammunition and check on flow of cash.

The districts of Malkangiri and Koraput in Odisha, Vishakhapatnam, Vijianagaram and Srikakulam distrcits of Andhra Pradesh and Dantewada and Bastar districts of Chhattisgarh are considered as most LWE-affected areas.

It may be noted that on September 23 last year, Maoists had killed TDP MLA from Araku constituency in Andhra Pradesh, Kidari Sarveswara Rao and former MLA Siveri Soma in Visakhapatnam district. Moroever, incidents of violence were also witnessed in Chhatisgarh during the last Assembly elections.

Koraput SP Kanwar Vishal Singh said, “Some more follow-up meetings at the lower level will be held to discuss implementation of strategies chalked out during the inter-state coordination meeting today, both on LWE and non-LWE front.”