Orissa now ready to take on Maoists, says Home Secretary

Orissa government feels implementation of integrated action plan in 15 Maoist-hit and backward areas has started paying dividend

PTI | January 10, 2011



Fuelled with "adequate force" and enthused by the elimination of at least 14 rebels in a span of 10 days, Orissa government today said it was now ready to prevent Maoist attacks and take on ultras in jungles and hideouts.

Orissa Home Secretary U N Behera said the state now could successfully prevent Maoist attacks as it had "adequate force comprising five battalions of BSF and seven battalions of CRPF besides its elite anti-Maoist Special Operation Group (SOG)."

While one battalion force comprises 540 personnel, one unit of SOG has 30 members. About 50 units of SOG was engaged in anti-Maoist operation in the state, officials said.

The Home Secretary described yesterday's encounter in Badangmali area of Rayagada district in which nine ultras, including four women, were killed as an "intelligence based operation," and said the state has developed intelligence network to track ultras movements.

"We expect recovery of more bodies from jungles in Badangmali area of Rayagada district," Deputy Inspector General of Police (south-western), Soumendra Priyadarshi said.

"We have recovered about half-a-truck load of arms and ammunition including INSAS rifles from Maoist hideouts in Rayagada where search is on for more bodies," the DIG said.

One of the ultras killed in Rayagada was identified as D Srinivas Rao alias Ramesh, considered as 'guru' of Maoist leader Sabyasachi Panda. Andhra Pradesh government had announced Rs 3 lakh reward on Ravi, he said.

Ravi was heading Kashipur Dalam of the out-lawed CPI (Maoist) in Orissa, Behera said.

Five ultras including, four women were, gunned down at Tamka in Jajpur district on January 2 in an encounter with security personnel.

Around a dozen of them, including five teenage girls, have, meanwhile, surrendered before the police expressing their desire to return to the mainstream, he said.

Orissa government feels implementation of integrated action plan in 15 Maoist-hit and backward areas has started paying dividend. About Rs 850 crore would be spent on these developmental work in next two years, the Home Secretary said.

Comments

 

Other News

Counting matters but which ones?

The first instinct of public policy is to count. Its harder task is to count what counts. We have become remarkably good at measuring the reach of the welfare state vis-à-vis beneficiaries covered, rupees transferred, houses built, connections installed and services delivered. But some of the most

Inching closer to a trade deal with America

The cooperation between India and the United States goes back quite a time. We need to relegate that era to the backburner when Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru visited US in the times of president Dwight Eisenhower and called the American let-off of 10 million dollars in defence aid to Pakistan as a “gun w

Manch vs Musk: Forty people and a foreign billionaire

About forty people walked the roundabout on Teen Murti Marg to the gate of Chanakyapuri police station, a distance you could cover in under a minute, on Friday to protest against Elon Musk’s Starlink. The walk was called by the Swadeshi Jagaran Manch. Nobody joined them on the way, and nobody seeme

Master sculptor recalls the making of the Shankaracharya statue

The Golden Chisel: The Story Behind the Making of Ram Lalla  By Seethalakshmi S. and Rahul Nandan Rupa Publications, 168 pages, Rs 395  

Mumbai’s missing affordable homes

Mumbai’s real estate market keeps growing, yet homeownership remains out of reach for much of its population. Three experts – urban researcher Hussain Indorewala, urban planner Vidyadhar Phatak and developer Kamlesh Thakur of NAREDCO Maharashtra, agree that simply constructing more apartments

Rubio denies US foreknowledge of Starlink restrictions in Ukraine

US secretary of state Marco Rubio has said he was unfamiliar with the Wall Street Journal report suggesting Elon Musk had decided to throttle Starlink services in Ukraine, but rejected claims that Washington had ordered the restrictions to pressure Kyiv.   “There was no

Upcoming Conferences



-->

Archives

Current Issue

Opinion

Facebook Twitter Google Plus Linkedin Subscribe Newsletter

Twitter