Bhubaneswar, Dec 16: The Odisha government has urged the Centre to step up infrastructure development in the Maoist prone districts. This was discussed at a videoconferencing at the State Secretariat here where the Union Cabinet secretary interacted with the senior state government officials.
Talking to media persons after the meeting, principal secretary, Home, Asit Tripathy said discussions on security and development aspects were held. Director General of Police, KB Singh, who was also present at the videoconferencing, said the meeting decided that the Odisha Police will have a talk with Andhra Pradesh Police to launch joint operation against the Maoists very soon and for effect operation against the Maoists, Odisha Police would formulate new strategies to counter their threats. Central forces would be redeployed in the Maoist prone districts.
Mostly the discussion was focused on developmental works in left wing extremism (LWE) areas of the state. On behalf of the state government an increase in the bandwidth of 257 existing mobile towers from 512 KBPS to 1 MBPS was demanded. Besides, the Cabinet secretary was also requested for approval of the proposal given to the Centre for setting up of 518 new mobile towers in the LWE areas. Tripathy further said banking penetration in the LWE areas is very less. Since last 18 months, 12 bank branches and 14 ATM counters have been opened in Koraput and Malkangiri. Therefore the Cabinet secretary was requested to take necessary steps to set up micro ATM, ATM, and Banking Correspondents. Request was also made to expedite Malkangiri-Jeypore-Nabarangpur rail project. The state government expressed concern over inordinate delay in the Central sanction for the Gurupriya Bridge construction of which is underway in the cut-off areas in Chitrakonda block in Malkangiri. Out of a total estimated cost of the bridge which is pegged at Rs 142 crore, the Centre till date has sanctioned Rs 45 crore. The Cabinet secretary was requested to release the pending amount at the earliest to ensure completion of the bridge construction work by September next year.
