Naxalism shall be eradicated from Jharkhand by 2018: DGP

Naxalism shall be eradicated from Jharkhand by the end of this year, said state Director General of Police D K Pandey.
In an interview to PTI, the DGP said that the state police in tandem with the civil administration has successfully cleared most of the areas of the state from the influence of the left wing Naxalism.
However, the remaining few pockets situated on the border areas shall be cleared by the end of the year 2018, he said.
The newly carved out state of Jharkhand from Bihar has been a hotbed of red terror.
Pandey said that three years ago 13 focus areas were identified all across the state and action plans were prepared to clear them off the menace of naxalism, adding a total of 18 security camps were established in these 13 naxal influenced remote areas.

He said, just a few years back there was a time when Maoists used to run parallel administration in these areas but with the help of the civil administration we established security camps."

Five camps were established in Parasnath (Dholkatta, Maniadih, mb01, mb02 and mb03), four camps in Gumla (Zori, Jamti, Banalat and Kurumgarh), one camp at Chainpur in Lohardaga, two camps in Palamau (Tal and Kukukalan) two camps in Bokaro (Chatro Chatti and Jageshwar Bihar) one camp in Gudari at Chaibasa and three camps in Latehar (Kumandi, Serendag and Chaupat).
"We used these camps not for only security men but also to facilitate other men engaged in the developmental and welfare activities," he said

"It has changed the entire scenario and the Naxals have run away from these areas helping the developmental activities to groom," he said.
Developmental works have been taken up and roads, bridges, schools, panchayat bhawans and block offices have been built and the people in these areas are very happy, he said.
The DGP said that 30 additional security camps are planned in these 13 focused areas.
These were covered under a host of developmental plans.
They are Chatra Area Action Plan, Parasnath Area Action Plan, Saranda Action Plan, Saryu Action Development Plan, Banalat Area Action Plan,Giridih-Koderma border area Action Plan, Dumka-Godda border area Action Plan, Khunti-Chaibasa border area Action Plan, Khunti-Simdega border area action plan, Garhwa-Latehar border area Action Plan, Jhumra Area Development Plan,Jamshedpur (Gudabandha, Dumaria and Musabani) Area Action Plan and Palamau-Chatra border area Action Plan.

These focused Action Plans resulted into the arrest of over 50 top Naxal commanders in the year 2017 alone and these arrests included area commanders and above in the ranks of the different left wing guerrilla groups.
The police action has helped reducing the number of Naxal incidents in the state. Last year there were 167 vis-a-vis 172 in 2016 and 178 in 2015, said the DGP.
Pandey said, In the intensive operations security forces eliminated 12 top Naxals in 34 police encounters and arrested 558 Naxals including 50 top commanders during the year 2017 and recovered 36 weapons looted from the police in the past.