As the Maoists have intensified their attacks on security personnel and infrastructure, the Centre on Wednesday decided to set up six jungle warfare and counter-insurgency schools to train security personnel to deal with the Naxals.
"Six jungle warfare and counter-insurgency schools will be set up within this year to train commando forces being raised by the Naxal-affected states," Union Home Secretary Madhukar Gupta told reporters in Delhi.
The locations of the schools will be decided within two weeks.
After chairing two separate meetings with officials of four Naxal-affected states -- Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh and Orissa -- Gupta said they have discussed operational strategies to deal with the Maoists "in considerable details" but refused to disclose these.
He said the issue of raising a specialised force had come up in the meeting and hoped that the Union Cabinet approval for it would be received in "very near future".
"A few battalions who are already engaged in the task have been identified. The states have also been asked to arrange the land for setting up the battalions so that by the time the approval is received, it could be operationalised immediately," he said.
Gupta said action was being taken to strengthen the intelligence network and for modernisation of the security forces in all the Naxal-affected states.
He said the states have a large number of vacancies in their police forces and the Centre has asked them to take intiatives to fill them up.
"We told them that unless you fill up the vacancies, the Centre cannot continue to give you additional force. You have to be self-sufficient. And accordingly, each state is recruiting 10,000 personnel," Gupta said.