Sushilkumar Shinde to review anti-Naxal operations, development prog in 9 states

NEW DELHI: Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde will take stock of anti-Naxal operations and development initiatives in Maoist-hit states with their chief secretaries and DGPs at a meeting convened here this month-end.

The top civil and police officers of Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Jharkhand, Bihar, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh will attend the meeting that will review the ongoing operations as well as development programmes being implemented there.

As monsoon is coming to an end, Naxals may try to intensify subversive activities and the top officials are likely to chalk out strategy how to deal with them, official sources said.

Shinde is expected to offer all possible help to the states and advise them to step up vigil in sensitive places to maintain peace.

Government recently admitted that the some of the attacks carried out by Naxals in the past were successful due to security forces' failure to adhere to basic policing tactics.

"An analysis of recent Naxal attacks disclose that the attacks could succeed mainly due to failure of adherence to basic policing tactics and practices by some of the state police forces," Minister of State for Home RPN Singh had said.

Such issues are likely to be discussed in the meeting, the sources said.

There were 285 incidents of Naxal violence from May to July, in which 117 people lost their lives. Of the deceased, 47 were killed in Chhattisgarh, 37 were killed in Jharkhand and 15 in Bihar.

Shinde, along with top officials, is also expected to take stock of the centrally sponsored special schemes, including Integrated Action Plan, being implemented in most backward regions of the nine states, the sources said.