HM, CMs of 10 Naxal-hit states to brainstorm on ways to tackle menace tomorrow

The centre's anti-naxal strategy will come up for close scrutiny on Monday when Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh meets Chief Ministers and officials from naxal-infested states here.

The meeting chaired by Singh will discuss security related issues and development aspects in separate sessions during the meeting, which comes a fortnight after 25 CRPF personnel were killed by naxals in Chhattisgarh's Sukma.

Sources said the high-level meeting will look at various ways of improving the existing strategy to counter naxals, who have managed to strike the force twice in a month. In March, 12 CRPF personnel were killed in Sukma.

The meeting will be attended by Chief Ministers of Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha, West Bengal, Bihar, Maharashtra, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh. District magistrates and Superintendents of Police of 35 of the worst-affect districts will also attend the meeting.

Sources said the agenda for the meeting include commando training of state forces by the Army, use of India Reserve Battalions instead of CRPF for road opening duties and the need for frequent unified command meetings among others.

An increase in IAF sorties for transporting security personnel may also figure in the meeting. The day-long meeting will discuss the role of states in operations of paramilitary forces, raising and employment of India Reserve (IR) Battalions and Special India Reserve Battalion (SIRB) as well as capacity building. It will also discuss intelligence issues like vacancies in state police and capacity building of state intelligence units, an official statement said.

Senior officials at the Centre would also discuss the modality for increasing anti-naxal operations in the states. Another point that will be debated is the need for upgrading the intelligence gathering apparatus in these states.

Singh had already said that the Centre would review the anti-naxal strategy following the April 24 incident.

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) had on May 4 ordered the immediate shifting of the anti-naxal operations command headquarters from Kolkata to Chhattisgarh following the two incidents in which 37 CRPF personnel were killed. In 2010, the headquarters was shifted to Kolkata from Raipur citing logistical and connectivity issues.

CRPF Additional Director General (Central Zone) Kuldiep Singh took over the command in Raipur on Friday as the MHA had instructed the CRPF to ensure that the command start functioning from the new place before the Monday meeting.