Naxal violence: Home sec to visit Chhattisgarh

Concerned over spurt in Naxal violence, Union Home Secretary Gopal K Pillai will arrive in Raipur on Monday on a two-day visit to Chhattisgarh during which he will take stock of the security situation, redeployment of paramilitary forces and visit some worst Maoist-hit areas.

Pillai and other Central officials will hold meetings with Governor Shekhar Dutt, Chief Minister Raman Singh and other top officials and review the situation in badly-affected Chhattisgarh in the wake of repeated attacks on security forces by the Naxals.

The home secretary is also expected to fine-tune the plan on redeployment of paramilitary forces by reducing the distance of troop posts, increasing the number of personnel in some posts and relocating some other posts. After Chhattisgarh, the new plan will be implemented in Jharkhand, Orissa and West Bengal.

The Central team will also visit several violence-hit areas and talk to security officials engaged in anti-Naxal operations as part of a moral-boosting exercise.

The special development scheme initiated by the Centre for the Naxal-hit areas will also come up for review during the visit of the team.

The statement by state police chief Vishwa Ranjan after the killing of 27 CRPF personnel on June 30 that "we cannot teach the paramilitary personnel how to walk", is unlikely to take up by the Central team following a clarification by the DGP yesterday.

More than 100 CRPF personnel were killed by the Maoists in Chhattisgarh since April.