Police officers from 6 states discuss to tackle left-wing extremists in LS polls

Senior police officers of six states Friday attended a meeting here to discuss issues related to the smooth conduct of the general election, Left Wing Extremism (LWE) and movement of criminals into each others territory, officials said. The senior police officers of Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Telangana and West Bengal attended the inter-state coordination meeting for smooth conduct of elections here. Senior officers of CRPF and BSF also attended the meet.

Addressing at the meeting, Odisha DGP RP Sharma emphasised on inter-state cooperation during the upcoming election to tackle challenges posed by left-wing extremists. Sharma urged the police officials of other states to share intelligence inputs about Maoists with each other.

The Odisha DGP hoped that this meeting would help in sharing of real-time intelligence as well as check the cross border movement of criminals to a great extent. "Strategies can emerge to check illegal transportation of contraband, drug trafficking, illegal cross border movement of weapons, counterfeit notes and Maoist movement," Sharma said. The meeting also discussed on other aspects like checking illegal fund flow and movement of criminals into each others territory as well as drug trafficking, a senior officer said.

Odisha's Development Commissioner-cum-Additional Chief Secretary, Asit Kumar Tripathy called upon the participating officers from different states to be prompt and co-operative in sharing intelligence on issues relating to cross border extremism, coastal security, inter-state movements of criminals and others IGP, SIW, Ghanashyam Upadhyay gave a presentation on Left-wing extremism and Maoist challenges to the election process. ADGP (Law and Order) Sanjeeb Panda, gave a presentation on the smooth conduct of the forthcoming elections.

Andhra Pradesh ADGP, Nalin Pravat, Telangana IGP Sreenivasa Reddy, Chhatisgarh DIG Amresh Mishra, Jharkhand DIG Kuldip Diwedi and West Bengal DIG Devendra Prakash Singh gave presentations on issues relating to the smooth conduct of the general elections. Issues like the nomination of Election Nodal Officer for liaisoning with neighbouring states, strategies to be adopted to deal with insurgents and extremists, regular intelligence and infrastructure sharing like helicopters, speed boats in critical areas, were discussed in the meeting, the official added.