VIJAYAWADA: DGP RP Thakur will fly to Bhubaneswar on Thursday to coordinate effectively with Odisha police to make the Andhra-Odisha border region free of Maoists. High on his agenda is sharing of intelligence on the movements of the Maoists, who are on the run after killing Araku MLA Kidari Sarveswara Rao and former legislator Siveri Soma on September 23 in Dumbriguda mandal.
The cooperation will not be limited to intelligence but will also include joint operations. The State police chief will meet his Odisha counterpart Rajendra Prasad Sharma and discuss measures to be taken immediately.
Combing operations are already on in the border region with AP’s Greyhounds, the elite anti-Maoist force, scouring the area even on the Odisha side.
According to reliable sources, the Maoists fled to the other side of the border after killing the two Telugu Desam leaders and are taking shelter in interior forest areas close to the Andhra border. Against this backdrop, the old proposal to create a force comprising police personnel from Naxal-affected states that share borders with Andhra Pradesh — Odisha and Chhattisgarh — is likely to come up for discussion.
A senior police official on condition of anonymity told TNIE that the proposal of forming an Inter-state force was discussed earlier too, but was stalled subsequently as Odisha and Chhattisgarh were not forthcoming.
Though the idea might sound good on paper, he said, there will be command and control issues with who will lead to becoming the main bone of contention.
“AP is better placed when compared to our neighbouring states.
Though the performance of Odisha police has improved of late, they are not as good as us. The Greyhounds is very professional,” the official said. Earlier, RP Thakur met CM Naidu and submitted a status report on the ongoing probe into the killings.