The committee, comprising senior police officers from Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa, the Union Home Ministry, and Central Reserve Police Force, called for better coordination amongst the states so that the extremists were not able to use the porous borders to seek shelter in a state after unleashing violence in another. However, the lack of coordination was evident from the fact that police officers from Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand failed to turn up at the meeting.

Officials from the Union Ministry included Special Secretary N S Kumawat, and D M Mitra, Director Naxalite Operations. The CRPF was represented by IG Operations K S Dwivedi. The meeting was chaired by Chhattisgarh Director General of Police Vishwaranjan.

Sources said while various Governments sought more funds and sophisticated equipment such as unmanned aerial vehicles and helicopters from the Centre, they failed to focus on ground-level patrolling and intelligence gathering. “We are fighting a faceless enemy and unless our intelligence is strong we will not be able to utilise the services of sophisticated machinery to track down and target the rebel cadres in the forests,” sources added.

Sources claimed that the meeting wasn’t able to thrash out a concentrated approach towards tackling the rebel threat. “Though police officers of various states had stressed on the need for joint operations and intelligence sharing, they weren’t able to finalise how it could be implemented at the ground level,” sources added.

Officers accepted that the tribal Bastar region of Chhattisgarh was the worst affected mainly because of the fact that its topography constituted thick forests and hilly terrain and it shared borders with three states of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Orissa. The adjoining districts in these three states were also Naxalite affected mainly due to the fact that there was movement of extremists across state borders. “Unless we are able to stop this movement we won’t be able to control the growing Maoist menace in the region,” sources added.