Strict vigil in Ghatshila, a hotbed of Naxalite activities. Telegraph Picture

Jamshedpur, March 9: Naxalite menace in poll time — such a challenging situation stares at the state police and their counterparts in neighbouring states ahead of the Lok Sabha election.

To prevent any untoward incident such as a rebel attack during the elections, senior police officers of three states — Jharkhand, Orissa and Bengal — today met at Ghatshila to chalk out a joint strategy to check Naxalite activities in the bordering districts.

Issues such as ensuring peaceful elections in Naxalite-affected districts of the three states, exchange of information on movements of rebels and criminals along the borders and joint operations dominated the talks that continued for over four hours at Vibhuti Vihar, a resort at Ghatshila.

Deputy inspector-general of police (DIG), Kolhan, M.K. Mishra presided over the meeting that was also attended by DIG, Midnapore range, Praveen Kumar.

Superintendent of police (SP), East Singhbhum, Naveen Kumar Singh, Purulia SP Rajesh Kumar Yadav, West Midnapore SP Manoj Verma and Mayurbhanj SP Dayal Gangwar also attended it. Besides, senior police officers, sub-divisional police officers of Ghatshila and Seraikela and inspectors and sub-inspectors of police, East Singhbhum and Seraikela, were also present.

Sources said that as polling begins in Orissa and Jharkhand on April 23, the police officers were concerned about holding the elections in a peaceful and fair manner.

Accordingly, it was decided that the police forces of the three states will conduct joint operations in the bordering areas prior to the election dates so that they can crack down on Naxalites as well as other criminals.

Mishra said that their aim was to strengthen the system of exchanging information about movements of Naxalites from one bordering district to another. “This will render our anti-insurgency operations more fruitful,” he said. However, he refused to divulge the details of the strategy.