Team News Riveting
Raipur, June 27
The meeting of Unified Command was held in the capital city of Chhattisgarh to further consolidate plans to tackle Maoists menace in the state.
Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel chaired the meeting held at the New Circuit House in Raipur. Besides State’s Home Minister Tamradhwaj Sahu, Chief Secretary Amitabh Jain, Director General of Police Ashok Juneja, Additional Chief Secretary Subrat Sahoo, senior officials of the state police and central forces deployed in the state were present.
Sources said in the meeting, emphasis was given to expedite the development works like roads, bridges in the Maoist-infested areas. The issues of strengthening the communication network, schools, hospitals and electricity infrastructure in the interior areas also came up for discussion.
The meeting also discussed the security arrangement in the area in wake of elections as Chhattisgarh goes to the polls later in the year. Providing security cover to the political leaders visiting Bastar during electioneering is also a big task for the security personnel.
Sources said the strategic discussion was held for the operation monsoon of the security forces against the Left-Wing extremists. Chhattisgarh Police had launched Operation Monsoon in Bastar to restrict Maoists to redesign and mobilise its resources during the rainy season.
Earlier, the rebels used to make necessary preparations during the monsoon as the movement of security forces was minimal. However, the latter had changed its policy and conducted operations even during monsoon. The meeting discussed establishing better coordination among the security forces for the Operation Monsoon.
After the meeting, Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel said the state government had made 650 villages Maoist-free and the meeting discussed further liberating the villages under rebels’ influence. “We are moving with three points namely confidence of people, development of the area and security,” Baghel said, adding that the Maoists incident had considerably dropped in the state.
Baghel said 75 camps had been opened while for the first time, camps of security forces had come up in the core zone also. He added the change could be gauged by the fact that earlier people of Bastar were treating security personnel as their foe. Now, they claim they are friends.
