Ten Maoist-affected States will give detailed presentations before Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh here on Friday where strategies will be chalked out to tackle the menace.
Chief Secretaries and Directors General of Police of Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Bihar, Odisha, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana will brief the Home Minister about the left wing extremism scenario in their respective jurisdiction and the achievements and failures recorded in anti-Maoist operations till now.
A critical appraisal of operational performance of security forces, gaps in coordination between the State police forces and Central paramilitary forces will be discussed during the daylong meet.Performance of State Governments in Centrally-sponsored projects like Security-Related Expenditure (SRE), special infrastructure scheme, fortified police stations and infrastructure availability in Central paramilitary forces camps will be reviewed by the Home Minister.
Presentations will be given on developments projects like integrated action plan, road projects and installation of over 2,199 mobile phone towers in Naxal-hit areas.Construction of around 5,000 km roads at a cost of Rs10,000 crore are under various stages and plans to set up the mobile phone towers at a cost of Rs3,000 crore is yet to start.
Singh is also expected to take a view on a new initiative of the Home Ministry to give special monetary benefits, out-of- turn promotions and choice posting to bureaucrats and security personnel operating in Maoist-hit areas considered “dangerous”.
Flagging Naxal areas as the ‘most dangerous zone’ in the country, the Centre is planning to enhance hardship allowance given to paramilitary personnel deployed in these areas more than what they get while serving in Jammu & Kashmir and Northeastern region.At present, a paramilitary constable serving in J&K gets around Rs8,000 per month in addition to his or her normal salary and other entitlements.
Meanwhile, Singh visited CRPF headquarters ahead of the meet to take stock of anti-Naxal operations and other internal security challenges being by the paramilitary.The Minister was given a presentation by CRPF DG Dileep Trivedi. Singh lauded the CRPF for free and fair conduct of the just-concluded Parliamentary polls and termed the paramilitary as playing key role in internal security responsibilities.
In his presentation, Trivedi highlighted the lack of mobile phone connectivity to the officers and men in Maoist-affected areas. To this, Singh assured the DG that he would personally take up the issue of setting up mobile phone towers in such areas and also bring the issues concerning the force to the notice of the PMO, an official who attended the meeting said.
Apart from underscoring the need to rationalise the allowances, the DG also sought a mechanism to directly route the SRE funds to the paramilitary for speedy action on ground. Presently, the funds are routed through the State Governments that do not spend money for years together, the official said.The controversial reorganisation policy and according the benefits of the old pension scheme was also discussed during the meeting.