This station has weapons, Internet, mineral water, needs a few more cops

Four armed personnel took positions, pointing their guns at us while our escort’s identity card was checked. And only when a policeman identified him as “apna police station ka aadmi (our man),” were we allowed to enter.

“Sorry, we have to do all this,” said SI G H Ramesh, the man in charge of the police station. “My men are always expected to remain alert, come what may, come who may.”

This alertness isn’t the only thing that strikes you about this police station in Neelwai, in the heart of Andhra Pradesh’s Naxal bastion, 250 km east of Adilabad. Consider:

• The station has a mineral-water plant. Unlike the one in Chhattisgarh, as reported in the first part of this series, authorities have taken care to ensure that personnel have access to safe drinking water. “The police shouldn’t fall ill after drinking impure water here, how else will they take on the Naxals?” says Ramesh.

• Neelwai has a siren system that enables all police chiefs, including State Director General of Police, to hear it, so they are alerted in case of an emergency. Neelwai isn’t an exception, every police station in the Naxal belt has this.

• It also has a free telephone facility provided under BSNL’s group-call scheme, with even landline to cell-phone calls being free. Neelwai has cell-phone coverage too.

• The station is wired. A computer next to Ramesh’s desk has internet facility. “Our work is paperless thanks to internal communication through Andhra Police Intranet Portal which is our home page,” says Ramesh.

With the bloodiest history in the entire country since the Naxal outbreak started in the ‘70s in six north Telangana districts, mainly Warangal and Adilabad, Andhra is fighting the war today in about 20 districts. It was here, officials say, that the “source population,” first of the People’s War Group and later for CPI (Maoists) for the movement’s entire central India operations was born.

The police stations are distinct in their design. Unlike in most other states, each one has a three-storey structure, with sentry positions at three levels that help the police cover a far wider area. Opened in 2002, Neelwai’s location is strategic — along the district’s border with Sironcha tahsil, the last Naxal frontier at the southernmost tip of Maharashtra’s Gadchiroli district. It is situated on five acres in a plain area with forests less than 3 km away. Given the facilities and the alertness, why would Naxals attack it at all?

Raghunandan Rao, who monitors Chennur, Kotampalli and Neelwai stations, admits that no “big incident” has taken place there but adds: “Neelwai is important for us since it’s on the threshold of Naxal entry points from across the border…If we didn’t have this, they would have come straight into mandal (block) headquarter towns like Chennur, 23 km inside the district.”

Incidentally, the Andhra police have prepared CDs showing a typical Naxal attack and each police station has been sent copies. In one instance, the CD shows a graphic representation of Naxals coming in a tractor, stopping at a temple adjacent to a police station, walking in to offer prayers and then running away seconds before the tractor explodes destroying the police station.

Equipped with modern weapons and gadgets, Neelwai is, of late, on extra high alert. “Andhra had held talks with Naxals in 2005 when they had started crossing over to Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh. Until December 2007, they were out. Now they are under pressure from the original cadres in those states to return to their parent state and do some action in their own areas. We have information that they have started movements in border areas and are planning major action,” says Adilabad Superintendent of Police Anil Kumar.

Despite excellent security drills and facilities, however, Neelwai has its weaknesses too. One, the absence of a proper compound wall. “Currently, we have barbed wire fencing with wooden pillars and now we are constructing one with iron pillars. But ideally, we should have one with a short brick-wall with iron pillars wound with barbed wires mounted on it,” says Ramesh.

But for one problem, he has no explanation. Against the sanctioned posts of 30 constables from the regular AP police, Neelwai has only 17. And of them, not more than seven are present on any given day. Two are constantly on court assignments, six on deputation at the Greyhounds commando station in Bellampalli 55 km away, one is on deputation to the parent Chennur police station and two are on long leave. The only reassuring factor is the presence of 24 CRPF men. “We can repulse attack even by 500 men,” says Mulchand Shekhawat, Inspector in-charge of three CRPF companies in the area, including the one here.

“Moreover, we also get forces whenever required from Bellampalli,” says SI Ramesh. Its distance meansBellampalli, as previously said, is 55 km, so Ramesh will have to wait at least for an hour in case of an emergency. Rao admits it’s one of the problem areas. “But the government has decided to have 30 percent more personnel recruited over the next one year,” he says.