Centre to help states beat back Naxalites

Operations against Naxalites has so far been carried out individually by the state police. While they have decided on coordinated action, states will still be free to devise their own strategy to deal with Naxals. ‘‘At the operational level, there will be more criss-crossing by the state police,’’ a Home Ministry official said.

One of the key reasons behind the decision is growing realisation among Naxal affected states, including Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh that the rebels slip across borders in case of an operation and manage to sneak back.

‘‘Of late, it was noticed that the Naxal cadre were slipping across state borders to escape police action. Further, we have noticed that leaders are crossing over from Andhra Pradesh to Chhattisgarh to address cadres in training camps. Effective anti-Naxal operations require across state coordination and operations across each other’s borders,’’ a senior Ministry official said.

Several states including Chhattisgarh are known to have agreed to carry out joint operations across the border with Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Orissa. Besides the increased police casualty, the other reason cited for ‘‘hot-pursuit’’ is increased use of sophisticated weapons being used by the Naxals.

That besides, modernisation of state police including jungle warfare training of policemen was agreed upon. The Interstate Intelligence Teams and the Subsidiary Multi-Agency Centre operating at the state level and reporting to the Multi-Agency Centre in Delhi will be increasingly used to give shape to coordinated action, senior officials said.