State seeks more Central forces battalions
Bhubaneswar: Chief minister Naveen Patnaik on Sunday urged the Centre to deploy another five battalions of Central paramilitary forces in the northern districts of Odisha bordering West Bengal, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh.

This will be in addition to the five battalions of Border Security Force assigned to Southern Odisha recently, Patnaik said while attending the conference of chief ministers on internal security at Vigyan Bhavan, in New Delhi inaugurated by prime minister Manmohan Singh in presence of Union home minister P Chidambaram.

Terming the Maoists as anti-nationals, Patnaik said that the battle against the red rebels should be fought on all fronts, with firmness as well as sympathy for the public cause.

The chief minister also sought an additional outlay of Rs 300 crore for Vijayawada-Ranchi Road as it is passing through the Maoist affected districts of three states.

He advocated for concrete roads in the tribal villages of Malkangiri and Koraput districts under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) and underlined the need for relaxation in the norms of PMGSY to cover villages having population of 100 and above since the affected areas are sparsely populated.

To augment capacity of the state police force, five Special Security Battalions have been raised and a new Basic Constabulary Training Academy has been sanctioned, he said, adding that more than 100 new police stations have been set up in the last couple of years.

He also said that the state government has completed raising the Special Operation Group.

A unique programme of recruiting tribal youth in the age group of 18 to 25 in the Maoists affected districts as trainee Special Police Officers (SPOs) has been initiated, he said.

Reiterating the commitment of the state government to strengthen the internal security system, Patnaik said that a holistic approach is required to meet the challenge of left wing extremism.

Referring to the land rights of the tribals, he said that their rights have been adequately protected through legislation and several policy initiatives which include a ban on land transfer to non-tribals.