While the Centre has decided to pump in a whopping Rs 29,000 crore for road and mobile connectivity in the Left Wing Extremist (LWE) affected areas of the country to improve governance there, Odisha among some other affected States stands to get benefit from such an initiative.
Sources said the move is on to construct 11,000 km of new roads and 4,000 more mobile towers to improve connectivity in such areas.
This move of the Centre will provide a fillip to the action plans undertaken by LWE affected States including Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra. The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has sanctioned an ambitious project for installation of over 4,000 mobile towers at a cost of Rs 11,000 crore in the Maoist-affected districts of the country.
Sources said a decision has been made to improve the mobile connectivity in these far flung areas while a time bound programme has been chalked out to implement the massive project.
The NITI Aayog has been working out strategies for development in the Maoist affected areas, where connectivity improvement gets top priority.
For improving telecom connectivity, as many as 2,335 mobile towers have already been installed in these States.
Similarly, as far as road connectivity is concerned, the Centre has already constructed over 5,500 km of roads in the Mao affected areas, revealed the latest report on road connectivity by the NITI Aayog.
Sources said the Union Government has envisaged to construct 11,000 km road with an investment of Rs18,000 crore.Road Requirement Project (RRP) I and II has already been completed and the RRP III is being taken up in the Maoist hit States.
While the State Governments are facing funds constraints to pay the dues for deployment of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF)s in the Red Corridors, most of the Chief Ministers of Maoist affected States have urged Prime Minister for waiver of such dues.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had raised the issue in the NITI Aayog Governing Council as Rs3,400 crore has been levied on Odisha to pay the dues for deployment of CAPFs.
In Odisha, 17 battalions of CAPFs have been deployed in Red Corridors and Odisha is asking for two more CAPF battalions for deployment in border zones.
The Union Government has, however, advised the State Governments to reduce dependence on these Central forces.In a recent advice to the State Government, the MHA has asked to rely increasingly on State Special Forces, India Reserve (IR) Battalions and State Armed Police (SAP).
The MHA has also urged for capacity building of special police forces, intelligence branches of the State Governments for carrying out intelligence based operations in the Red Zones, said sources.
Improvement in inter-State coordination has also been stressed for eroding the growth of LWEs, said a senior officer.
Redeployment of CAPFs has also been advised by the Union Government as geographical spread of Maoists is shrinking fast and their strength is declining.