New Delhi, Feb. 9: Bastar, the Chhattisgarh Maoist den, will be the "axis" of a security-cum-development push against the rebels over the next four months with the Centre finalising the two-pronged strategy at a meeting today.
Chhattisgarh chief minister Raman Singh, his Maharashtra counterpart Devendra Fadnavis and top officials of Odisha and Telangana attended the meeting called by Union home minister Rajnath Singh. The four states share borders in the forested Bastar, making it strategically important.
The three-hour meeting - also attended by several other Union ministers and the police chiefs of the states - came at a time the Centre believes it has gained an edge in the battle against the insurgents.
It was decided today to push infrastructure projects with a focus on Bastar and neighbouring areas in the three other states. The projects include roads, bridges, railway lines, mobile towers, post offices, banks, education and health, apart from communication facilities like cellphone towers, and radio and TV transmission units.
The push follows recommendations, made by a panel headed by former CRPF chief K. Vijay Kumar, that development and security should go hand in hand in Bastar.
To achieve the goals, offensives would be conducted along the inter-state borders in the region, with the CRPF playing the pivotal role. A key area will be Sukma, the Bastar pocket where several Congress leaders and cops were massacred by Maoists in April 2013.
Sukma also borders the rebel-infested Malkangiri district of Odisha. "After Sabyasachi Panda's exit from the scene, a second-in-command has been arrested and rebel cadres have been virtually decimated. What is needed is more co-ordination along the border," said a senior Odisha police officer who attended the meeting. Panda, the Maoist leader in charge of the rebels' Odisha wing, was arrested last year.
After the meeting, Chhattisgarh chief minister Raman Singh said he had sought 10 more battalions of central forces (10,000 personnel) but was given six (6,000).
Raman Singh and Fadnavis also met the Union ministers present, including Nitin Gadkari, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Smriti Irani, Suresh Prabhu, Haribhai Parathibhai Chaudhary and Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore.
Gadkari, the highways minister, said around Rs 6,000 crore had been earmarked in the first phase of a road-building plan for all rebel-affected states, while the sum for the second phase was Rs 11,000 crore. This, he said, will include funds unused from the first phase.
But Raman Singh pointed out 700km of sanctioned roads remained unfinished in Chhattisgarh, in addition to two big bridges.
Fadnavis highlighted the infrastructure gaps in Gadchiroli, the rebel-hit Maharashtra pocket that borders Bastar. He said around 150km of roads in the area and a bridge sanctioned in January last year were yet to be completed.
The Bastar thrust will not be limited to roads. Around 900 mobile towers will be erected, at least 500 of which will be built by March and the rest by May. "Before monsoon, a lot of work has to be done," a senior official said.
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