Naxals oppose new mobile towers

Rebels termed that the expansion of communication network would help in establishing communication between the security forces and informers located in the interior areas

Even as the Chhattisgarh government had been focusing on spreading the mobile network in the restive Bastar region, Naxalites have issued a fresh whip opposing the move.

The police have recovered a poster stuck in an interior area in which the outlawed Communist Party of India (Maoist) had signaled its strong opposition against expansion of communication network in the region. The rebels termed that the expansion of communication network was a false development of the government and it would oppose it.

The poster added that the mobile tower companies are earning huge profit but the towers are not for the sake of people. The Naxal wing underlined that the network would help in establishing communication between the security forces and informers located in the interior areas.

“We are least bothered about what the Naxalites thing (on the issue of expansion of mobile network),” Bastar Inspector General of Police SRP Kalluri said. The communication network would help the security forces (in combating the Naxalites) and also establish contact with their family members from the interior areas of densely forested pockets, he added.

Chhattisgarh government, in its strategy designed to deal with the Left Wing Extremism, had given special stress for expanding mobile connectivity in Bastar. The rebels had been intercepting the wireless messages and hence the security forces would get option to use another mode of communication in the battlefield. The private service providers are reluctant to work in the Naxal-infested pockets and hence the state-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) had been putting maximum towers.

In all, 146 towers had been proposed in the Naxal-infested areas of Bastar with an investment of over Rs 200 crore.