Fight against Naxals: Rajnath to chair meeting of four CMs

To firm up plans to give a heavy push to the fight against Naxals in their citadel in Bastar, Home Minister Rajnath Singh will chair a meeting of Chief Ministers of four Maoist-hit states -- Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Telangana and Odisha -- tomorrow.

With a special focus on carrying out anti-Naxal operations in the dense jungle of Bastar, the meeting will give stress on close coordination among state police forces and central paramilitary forces so that the Maoists do not escape from one state to other.

Sources said since all the four states share borders with the jungles of Bastar, considered to be the hub of CPI (Maoist), the central government wants to give a heavy push to strike at the Naxals at their den.

A majority of casualty in Naxal violence in recent past has come from the Bastar region, forcing the Centre to firm up an urgent initiative to counter the rebels.

"Customised approach" will be taken in each of the troubled areas in the country, the sources said.

The meeting will also be attended by DGPs of all four states, heads of paramilitary forces and senior Home Ministry officials.

A total of 14 CRPF personnel were killed by Maoists in December last year in Sukma district in Bastar region.

More than 25 people, including Congress leaders Mahendra Karma and others, were killed in an ambush carried out by Naxals at Jiramghati in Bastar region in May 2013. Congress leader V C Shukla, who was injured in the ambush, died later.

76 CRPF personnel were killed by the rebels in Dantewada in Bastar region in April 2010.

The worst Maoist violence-affected states are Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Odisha, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.

The central government has deployed nearly one lakh personnel of paramilitary forces in these affected states to deal with the rebels.