16 police districts dominated by naxalites in Orissa

Bhubaneswar, Nov 19 (UNI) The Orissa government has identified 16 police districts as Naxal-dominated districts in the state, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik told the Assembly today.

To a question of Rabinarayan Nayak, the Chief Minister said the government had identified Malkangiri, Rayagada, Koraput, Nawarangpur, Ganjam, Gajapati, Berhampur, Kandhamal, Samblpur, Deogarha, Sundergarha, Rourkela, Keonjhar, Mayurbhanja, Dhenkanal and Keonjhar.

Mr Patnaik said the Naxal activity was expected to spread to some more districts in the coming days.

The intelligence department had been keeping a sharp vigil on the areas, expected to come under Naxal movement, and action would be taken when needed, he said.

To another question, Mr Patnaik said from April to October this year as many as 34 Naxal-related incidents were reported in the state in which nine civilians, one security personnel and two Naxalites were killed.

The government, the Chief Minister said, had constituted special intelligence wing, special operation group, special security wing and special security battalion, strengthened the police stations and jails in Naxal-dominated areas and imparted special training to the policemen to prevent the spread of Naxal movement.

In addition to it, the government had implemented a scheme to rehabilitate the youths involved in Naxal activities to bring them to the mainstream, banned the CPI(Maoist) and six other frontal organisations, constituted a state-level coordination committee to protect the property of Railways, constituted a joint inter-state workforce with Andhra Pradesh and Jharkhand to actively counter the Naxalites in the border areas.

The Chief Minister said while four battalions of CRPF had been deployed, the government had constituted one India Reserve Battalion and started the process of establishing the second and third battalion to counter the Naxalite menace.

UNI