New Delhi, May 8: Today, for discussing the issues of security in the Maoists cut-off areas and to curb the problem, the Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik will be attending a high-level ministers’ talk conducted by the the ministry of Home Affairs at Vigyan Bhavan here. Chief ministers of Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh are also scheduled to attend. Other than to discuss steps to curb the menace, Odisha has also decided to request for the funding under the SRE scheme for the security of the cut-off areas. Other issues that are likely to be discussed in the meeting are construction of mobile towers in Maoist-affected areas, connectivity of roads for coordination with neighbouring states and deployment of two additional battalions of central force in Odisha. New strategies are to be chalked out in a blueprint to stop the Maoists activities and also to make proper coordination between the State cops and Central para-military forces. Chances of strengthening intelligence gathering mechanism, analysis of ongoing operations and better coordination between neighbouring states will also be held at the meet.
Notably, from Jan 2011 to Apr 15, 2017 around 3,136 people including civilians, security forces and alleged police informers have been killed in 7,781 Maoist-related violence.
