Union home minister P Chidambaram (centre) with Chhattisgarh chief minister Raman Singh (left) and Orissa chief minister Naveen Patnaik comes out after a meeting over naxal issue in New Delhi on Tuesday. (PTI)

New Delhi, June 14: Vigil along the Orissa-Chhattisgarh border would be strengthened with the deployment of additional paramilitary battalions while joint anti-Maoist operations would continue in the Naxal-affected states.

The decision to strengthen the border and a reaffirmation of the Centre’s “two-pronged approach” were made at a review meeting that Union home minister P. Chidambaram held with Orissa and Chhattisgarh chief ministers Naveen Patnaik and Raman Singh.

Inter-state border operations seemed to be the Achilles heel for what is seen to be a less violent year by Chidambaram.

Naveen, who had problems with increasing its police strength till last year, apparently got a pat this year for being able to reduce the number of incidents to 83 from 95 last year (till 31 May).

Another review meeting of Naxal-affected state chief ministers is expected in July where Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar may have to answer a few uncomfortable questions as his state faces the Maoists’ music.

“Chhattisgarh has reported 218 incidents with 90 deaths and Orissa has reported 84 incidents with 26 deaths. Although the numbers are lower than last year, the level of violence is unacceptable. The central government has offered its full support to the two (states),” Chidambaram said at a media conference later.

While the news is not so bad for Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand seems to have suffered this year as well. Statistics available show that violent incidents in Chhattisgarh reduced from 275 in 2010 (till 31 May) to 193 in the same period this year. In Jharkhand, however, it has remained almost unchanged from 209 incidents last year to 206 this year. Indeed, the number of deaths has increased from 61 to 69 deaths, according to statistics available with The Telegraph.

A total of five battalions or about 5,000 personnel would be deployed on the inter-state boundary where the Maoists had been inflicting reverses on the central and state forces of late, sources said.

Eighteen state police and paramilitary personnel were killed in the last week in Narayanpur and South Dantewada areas in Chhattisgarh.

These forces are in addition to the 84 CRPF, 30 BSF and 12 ITBP companies in Chhattisgarh and 42 CRPF and 30 BSF companies in Orissa.

Besides, the two states also have unspecified CoBRA companies apart from their own specially trained forces of the state police that may have helped in reducing the number of incidents.

Later, Chidambaram said that the number of incidents and casualties this year was lower than in the corresponding period last year. The minister rattled off statistics to prove how Maoists targeted police informers and economic assets. Of the 190 civilians killed this year, 72 were branded as police informers, home ministry figures state.

“Up to 14 June, 811 incidents (1,025 last year) resulted in 270 deaths (473 last year),” said Chidambaram on total incidents in eight states.

A senior home ministry official later said that for 50km on the border areas one might not see a single policeman on patrol. As a result, Maoist presence increased.

Chidambaram, however, was apparently satisfied that security forces had apprehended top leaders of the CPI(Maoist). Of the 14 politburo members five are in police custody while 11 of the 35-odd Central Committee members are also in judicial custody. On Monday, Jagdish Yadav was arrested in Bihar.