Inter-state police meet on elections focuses on Naxal menace

BHUBANESWAR:  Senior police officers from Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal on Friday deliberated on enhancing real time intelligence sharing and conducting more joint operations to tackle the left wing extremism (LWE) menace and other crimes during the inter-state coordination meeting on the upcoming general elections. 

Security in coastal areas was also discussed at the meeting which was attended by Additional Chief Secretary of Home Department Asit Tripathy, DGP Dr RP Sharma, senior officers from Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Border Security Force (BSF) and Odisha Police.“Election Commission of India (ECI) officials had suggested to organise meetings at all levels including OIC, SP and senior officers for inter-State police cooperation. Such a meeting is required ahead of the elections,” Tripathy said.

Several matters like curbing the activities of the Red ultras, sharing intelligence, infrastructure like helicopters and speed boats, checking illegal movements of weapons, cash, fake currency, freebies, illicit liquor, cannabis, brown sugar, coordination with coastal security forces, sealing borders during elections, organising inter-district/range border meetings, sharing the experiences about the last general elections, and others were discussed during the one-day session.

“The meeting was important in view of the general elections ahead. During elections, many activities take place along the border areas where police intervention is required and our primary concern is to tackle the Naxal menace,” Dr Sharma said. 

Like every election, it is anticipated that the Naxals will call to boycott polls and threaten the villagers. The police officers are also on high alert after Muppala Laxmana Rao alias Ganapathy stepped down as the general secretary of CPI (Maoist) and Namballa Kesava Rao known as Baswaraj was elected to head the banned organisation. 

“Once the ECI announces the schedule of the general elections, more areas of cooperation will be identified like sharing manpower. A State can share its manpower when polling is over there and elections are due in its neigbouring States,” the DGP said.  The other areas of cooperation discussed during the meeting included the sharing of helicopters in case of emergency. Sources said the State police has requested the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to provide two helicopters ahead of the elections. 

Andhra Pradesh ADG Nalin Prabhat said general election is a challenge for them and they will address the matter jointly. They have a good operational equation with Odisha Police and the areas of concern are Koraput and Malkangiri districts where operations are being conducted jointly by them, he added. 
Grey Hounds IG K Sreenivasa Reddy, DIG Amresh Mishra from Chhattisgarh, Chaibasa DIG Kuldeep Dwivedi, IG Devendra Prakash Singh from West Bengal and Prabhat gave presentations for smooth conduct of the polls.