Rourkela police on alert ahead of Jharkhand Assembly elections

Jharkhand-bound trains and buses are being intensely scrutinised and around half a dozen cases under the NDPS Act have been registered.

Police personnel checking vehicles in Rourkela (Photo | Express)

ROURKELA: In the run-up to the Jharkhand Assembly polls in two phases, Rourkela police and their counterpart from West Singhbhum, are on alert to thwart any attempt by Maoists to disrupt the elections.

Train and bus routes to Jharkhand have been put under intense scrutiny to prevent flow of excise and narcotic substances to the poll-bound vulnerable pockets of the neighbouring state. The move comes in the wake of Bihar-Jharkhand Special Area Committee of the outlawed CPI (Maoist) outfit asking Jharkhand voters to boycott the election through posters and banners.

Of late, there has been an uptick in Maoist violence in the vast Sarada forest in West Singhbhum district which shares 75 km of porous border with Sundargarh district in Odisha which stretches from Bisra to Koida.

Rourkela SP Nitesh Wadhwani said personnel of Rourkela police in coordination with their West Singhbhum counterparts are regularly carrying out anti-Naxal operations along the Odisha-Jharkand border to allow little room for Maoists to cause disruptive activities in the neighbouring state using Odisha soil.

He said all vulnerable entry and exit points are under constant surveillance. Five static posts have been set up at strategic locations within Bisra, Koida, K Balang and Chandiposh police limits. The focus is on keeping the left wing extremists (LWEs) on the run and also prevent flow of banned materials and criminals to the poll-bound state.

Wadhwani said Jharkhand-bound trains and buses are being intensely scrutinised and around half a dozen of cases under NDPS Act have been registered and several criminal elements have either been arrested for pending cases or put under surveillance.

Police sources informed amid increase in surveillance, road checking, patrolling and crackdowns at vulnerable areas, the criminal elements are finding it hard to operate with ease. After a lull of few years, the Maoist activities have increased in the vast Saranda forest, which till recently used to be Eastern Regional Bureau of the banned outfit. However, the Maoist violence has not yet spilled over to Sundargarh.

The increased police activities would continue till the first phase of election on November 13 when five Assembly segments under West Singhbhum and two Assembly constituencies under Simdega go to polls. Meanwhile, Sundargarh police too have sealed inter-state border points with Simdega district.