New Delhi: The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has asked the state governments of Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra to augment Joint Task Force (JTF) along with their border areas as a strong deterrent against Maoists.
“We have asked the State governments sharing their border with each other and facing Maoists menace to augment Joint Task Force (JTF) strategy. In fact, security forces engaged with this kind of JTF have been successful in thwarting the Maoists activities,” said a senior official in the MHA to ETV Bharat on Wednesday.
As Chhattisgarh is presently the major stronghold of Maoists, the MHA has asked all the State governments sharing its border with Chhattisgarh to share their intelligence inputs on a real time basis. Apart from State police forces, personnel from CRPF, ITBP and SSB are the other members of the task force.
On Tuesday, Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla chaired a high level meeting with the top officials of CRPF, ITBP, SSB and took stock of the security scenario in the naxal affected States.
In fact, the Ministry has given a fresh direction to all the States in the run-up to the Assembly election in Chhattisgarh, Telangana and Madhya Pradesh. MHA believes that the coordinated approach against Maoists can make the election violence free. The ministry has also suggested the state government for cohesive intelligence sharing with each other.
It is worth mentioning that the Maoists could attack only in one place during the ongoing election in Chhattisgarh’s Bastar area where an explosion left several security personnel injured. “It is due to our joint efforts that the Maoists are unable to make any major impact in the run up to the election,” the official said.
The official added that the different developmental schemes initiated by the central government were also able to make a dent in several Maoists' hold. Talking about some anti Naxal measures initiated by the central government, the official said that a total of 536 fortified police stations have been completed till date in the naxal affected States.
“More 102 fortified police stations have been approved by the Home Ministry,” the official informed. Fortified police stations consist of high boundary walls, sophisticated control rooms, watchtowers and maximum accommodation of police personnel. “The overall development in naxal affected areas have detached the villagers from the ultras,” the official said.
On the development front, apart from flagship schemes of Government of India, several specific initiatives in LWE affected States, with special thrust on expansion of road network, improving Telecom connectivity, skill development and financial inclusion have also been adopted on a first track basis. For expansion of the road network, 13234 km roads have been constructed till date, of which 250 km of roads in Madhya Pradesh and 869 km in Maharashtra have been constructed.
To improve telecom connectivity, 2343 mobile towers are installed in phase-I of the Mobile Tower Project in Naxal affected States. Under phase-II of the Mobile Tower Project, 2542 Mobile Towers are under installation, the official said.
“For financial inclusion of the local populace in these areas, thousands of bank branches have been opened in Naxal hit areas. 4903 new post offices in 90 districts have been opened during the last eight years,” the official informed.
For quality education in tribal blocks of LWE affected districts 125 Eklavya Model Residential Schools (EMRSs) have been made functional in 90 LWE affected districts, the official added.
