Nip Maoist threat in the bud: Centre to Telangana
KHAMMAM : It appears as if the Centre is furious with the Telangana government and the State’s police machinery for their alleged inability to nip Maoist threat in the bud. It may be recalled that some Maoist leaders had urged the people to burn the effigies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah on the occasion of ‘International Action Day’ (Nov 24), organised opposing Operation Prahar.
On learning about this, the Centre vented its ire at the Telangana government and directed it to take necessary measures to curb Maoist menace and ensure that such incidents don’t happen in the future.
According to sources, the Union government is of the opinion that both Telangana and Chhattisgarh are lagging behind in controlling Left Wing Extremism (LWE).
The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) also received information from the Intelligence Bureau that the leaders of the banned outfit organised a massive meeting in which hundreds of people took part in Pamedu forest area on the occasion of ‘International Action Day’, despite the fact that there were several police base camps in the area.
Sources told Express that the Intelligence Bureau officials have already sent a detailed report to the MHA stating that the Maoist leaders and activists went ahead and burned the effigies and posters of Modi and Shah during the meeting.
Cops bear the brunt
The news that Maoists burned the effigies and posters of Modi and Shah in Telangana has come as a shocker to the State police though the area has enough CRPF camps and they carry out combing operations on a regular basis.
After the MHA expressed its anger over the incident, DGP M Mahender Reddy paid surprise visits to the base camp at Chennaram in Cherla mandal of Bhadradri-Kothagudem district on December 1 and interacted with the forces. During the meeting, he reportedly gave strong instructions to the security personnel and directed them to deal with Maoist activists with an iron fist. He urged them to take measures to weed out Maoist threat. In the meantime, a police officer working in the area cited the effigy-burning incident as “a failure of the Intelligence officials”.
“Even the Intelligence Bureau found out about it after the Maoists burned the effigies of the PM and HM,” the personnel said.Meanwhile, an official of the State’s Intelligence Wing lambasted the security personnel stating that the effigy-burning incident happened right near their camps. “There are several base camps in the area. Hundreds of CRPF, greyhound and special party officials patrol the area on a daily basis and yet they couldn’t get any information regarding the incident. It is appalling,” the official opined.