Naveen Patnaik

Bhubaneswar, April 13: The Orissa government today decided to beef up security in the naxalite-hit districts, especially border areas in south Orissa.

The decision was taken at a meeting, chaired by chief minister Naveen Patnaik. Chief secretary Bijoy Patnaik, home secretary U.N. Behera and top police officials attended the meet.

The decision to step up anti-Maoist operation came following receipt of the intelligence reports that Maoists leaders had been assembling and holding camps on the border areas of Chhatisgarh, Jharkhand and Orissa, said a senior police officer.

In fact, the Red rebels became active in Orissa after the government had been forced to suspend combing operation following the abduction of Malkangiri collector R. Vineel Krishna on February 16. Suspension of combing operation was one of the major preconditions of the Maoists for release of Krishna.

At present, 12 batallions of central paramilitary forces have been deployed in the Maoist-affected areas of Orissa. A unified command has been set up, headed by the chief secretary, to monitor the anti-Naxalite operations in Orissa. Moreover, an inter-state joint task force has been set up with Andhra Pradesh and Jharkhand to take up the joint anti-Maoist operations on the borders. However, these battalions and outfits have been sitting idle following suspension of anti-Maoist operation.

The fact that the rebels have become active after suspension of the anti-Maoist operation was indicated from the arrest of top Maoist leader Chandra Bhushan alias Ghasi from Semiliguda in Koraput district about a week ago.

Prior to Ghasi, Satrughna Biswal, one of the four members of the Maoists’ Orissa State Organising Committee, was arrested on March 5 from Bargarh railway station.

On April 10, a combined CRPF and state police team busted a Maoist camp in the forests of Keonjhar district seizing a huge cache of explosives. Seventy-two detonators and about a dozen gelatine sticks apart from charger wires were seized from the camp. The chief minister had admitted in the Assembly that about 600 to 700 Maoist cadres had been active in Orissa.

Naveen had announced that a special task force would be set up in the state crime branch to deal with the left wing extremism-relatedcases.