Police security for road works in Maoist areas

Telangana police will be providing security to contractors and road laying machinery in Maoist affected areas of the state. The move follows the Left Wing Extremists (LWE) killing contractors and damaging machinery in the adjoining Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand states in their bid to stop the road laying works.

With the financial assistance of the Union government, the state government has been taking up development of roads in Maoist affected areas of Telangana at a cost of `550 crore approximately. The Central government will provide funds to an extent of `287.31 crore, the state government will bear the remaining cost of `259.65 crores under the Road Connectivity Project for Left Wing Extremism Affected Areas (RCPLWEA) for the year 2017-18.

“Tenders are being called for the works and we hope to complete it in a year-and-a-half. Assistance of police is being sought in pockets of the state, including Kothagudem, Cherla and Venkatapuram which border Chhattisgarh,” said P. Satish, chief engineer, road and building department.

The 452-kilometre road will cover four districts of Adilabad, Karimnagar, Warangal and Khammam and connect the Maoist affected areas of Telangana with those in Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh. Both the Union and the state governments aim to strengthen road connectivity between the three states as well as provide better transport facility to people living in remote areas in the Maoist infested areas.

On the law and order front, the police feel it would enable movement of heavy vehicles as well as provide a strategic advantage for the security forces to make inroads into the Maoist affected areas.