Senior police officers of four Left Wing Extremism (LWE) hit states attended an inter-state co-ordination meeting at Jeypore in Odisha on Thursday to chalk out strategy for smooth conduct of the Lok Sabha polls.
Senior police officials from Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Telengana, Chhattisgarh and BSF attended the meeting which was chaired by Odisha’s DIG (south-western range) Himansu Lal.
Officials said the sharing of intelligence inputs and better coordination of forces including joint combing operations were discussed in details in the meeting. The present Maoist scenario in the region was assessed and discussion was held as to what steps required to be taken for free and fair election.
SP (Koraput) Kanwar Vishal Singh said that regular follow up meetings will be conducted at DSP and inspector-in -charge levels of the respective police station areas and sensitive areas will be identified.
Sources said that the police officers from the three states have decided to focus on Maoist-hit areas like Visakhapatnam and Srikakulam districts in Andhra Pradesh, Malkangiri and Koraput districts in Odisha and Dantewada district in Chhattisgarh.
As the Maoists have been giving frequent calls to boycott the polls, the focus should be on the security of the candidates, political workers, leaders and polling agents during campaign and also on election day, officials said.
On September 23 last year, Maoists had killed TDP MLA from Araku constituency in Andhra Pradesh, Kidari Sarveswara Rao and former MLA Siveri Soma in Visakhapatnam district.
