Rs 1,300cr to hunt Naxals: Maha CM

By Umesh Mohite

Mumbai

Feb. 2: A day after a group of heavily armed Naxals stunned the police and killed 15 of them in a firefight in Gadchiroli, chief minister Ashok Chavan announced a Rs 1,300 crores plan over the next three years for six districts of Vidharbha to fight the Naxal menace. Mr Chavan made the announcement while attending the cremation of the 15 slain personnel.

For its part, the Anti-Naxal Squad (ANS) promised that the police personnel pursuing the fleeing Naxals would soon have some news to announce. Police officers said the search for the Naxals who killed 15 policemen in thick forests of Dhanora in the Naxal-infested Gadchiroli district was still on till late Monday evening.

While the state has deployed over 1,500 additional forces to reinforce the ANS at Gadchiroli, Mr Pankaj Gupta, additional director general of the police and head of the ANS said, "Various teams of the Gadchiroli anti-Naxal squad assisted by the ANS teams from Chhattisgarh have been combing the thick forest. It is taking time but soon we will have some news to announce."

The police is putting the attack down to two reasons, one being the arrest of 15 Naxalites, including two of their commanders, two days ago in a surprise anti-Naxal squad raid in the Ettapali taluka.

The other reason, said the anti-Naxal squad top brass, was that the Naxals wanted to stop the work of a bridge in the Gyarapatti Katgul police station’s jurisdiction for which the Naxals had burnt a roller and a truck.