Kiran for rapid movement of forces along borders

HYDERABAD: Chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy on Monday requested Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to approve the proposal on facilitation of rapid movement of security forces along the inter-state borders.In his address at the “Conference of Chief Ministers on Internal Security” held in New Delhi on Monday, Kiran Kumar Reddy raised certain issues related to the internal security of the state. He requested the Centre to approve the long pending demand for stationing of a troop carrier helicopter at Visakhapatnam to conduct swift air surveillance across the Andhra-Odisha border.The chief minister also wanted the expenditure on counter-terrorism measures in the states be brought under the Security Related Expenditure (SRE) funds, on the lines of the Left Wing Extremism (LWE)scheme and sought additional central funding to tackle left wing extremism.The state has been facing grave challenges from the left wing extremism and the internal security of the state is in danger, said Kiran Kumar, adding the state government has evolved comprehensive strategies to deal with the issue. Speaking on the left wing extremism in the state, the chief minister said the government has evolved suitable mechanisms to address the root cause of the problem at socio-economic level. Eight Maoist-affected districts sharing borders with Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra have been included under Integrated Action Plan (lAP).Kiran Kumar requested the Prime Minister to approve the proposal for developing a road corridor network along the inter-state border districts with an estimated expenditure of `2,400 crore. Giving details on the security measures taken to curb the Maoist violence, Kiran Kumar said a special wing ‘Special Intelligence Branch’ has been set up and entrusted with collection of data about the left wing extremism. He pointed out that the two-pronged strategy of law enforcement and social-economic development has helped address the problem of left wing extremism to a large extent. He said “The measure of our success is seen in terms of number of armed underground cadre drastically reducing from 1100 in 2004 to 150 in 2012. During a year, we have achieved significant results in terms of arrest of top Maoist functionaries.”The chief minister said that an Inter State Intelligence Support Team has been formed to coordinate with the Central and state intelligence agencies on specific problems such as terrorism, espionage, fundamentalism, sabotage, and mafia.