BHUBANESWAR: After having achieved significant success in Maoist control operations, the Odisha Government is seeking more financial resources as well as increased communication infrastructure from Centre to push development projects in Left Wing Extremism (LWE) affected districts of the State.
On Thursday, Home Secretary Asit Tripathy and DGP KB Singh held video conferencing with Cabinet Secretary PK Sinha during which the State Government raised issues relating to release of funds for the crucial Gurupriya Bridge as well as focus on banking and mobile connectivity in the LWE-hit regions.
The State Government pointed out that of the estimated cost of `187.5 crore, the Centre has sanctioned `45 crore. However, the funds are yet to be released. The 915 metre long bridge, which is being taken up under Road Requirement Project (RRP) of the Centre, will connect the cut-off areas of Chitrakonda, thereby bringing about much-needed linking required for the region which is a Maoist heartland.
Similarly, the Government pressed for more mobile towers in the LWE districts to improve telecommunication as well as Internet connectivity. While the Government has sought 518 new towers, its focus is on upgradation of the existing 257 towers which have a bandwidth of 1 MBPS. The towers have been set up by the national service provider BSNL.
‘’Such poor bandwidth negates the whole point of establishing mobile connectivity as the system fails to take the load and call drop has become a chronic problem. It does not help operational purposes because of low capacity. Since private telecom operators would not step into the LWE areas, BSNL has a key role to play in shoring up the communication system,’’ sources said.
In fact, upgradation of telecommunication is a demand which most LWE-affected States have taken up with the Centre. In absence of a strong tele-connectivity, banking and ATM networks do not have a chance though the Centre is pushing for digital and cashless transactions. The State Government also demanded more bank branches in LWE areas which are mostly unbanked.
This apart, railway connectivity from Malkangiri to Nabarangpur via Jeypore was also raised with the Cabinet Secretary. Need for skill development of youths and hostels were also discussed.
Besides development strategies, the Government sought two more battalions of Central Armed Police Force (CAPF) for augmenting anti-LWE operations in the State, DGP Singh said currently, there are 17 battalions of CAPF (eight each of CRPF and BSF and one CoBRA) deployed in Odisha.
The State Police, which has successfully tackled the Red menace in southern Odisha districts in the last few years, is planning to move CAPF from three LWE-free districts and redeploy them in vulnerable districts in northern and western pockets.
Singh also informed that the State Police is devising plans to launch more operations jointly with its Andhra Pradesh counterparts in Malkangiri and adjoining regions.