• It also has a free telephone facility provided under BSNL’s group-call scheme, with even landline to cell-phone calls being free. Neelwai has cell-phone coverage too.

• The station is wired. A computer next to Ramesh’s desk has internet facility. “Our work is paperless thanks to internal communication through Andhra Police Intranet Portal which is our home page,” says Ramesh.

With the bloodiest history in the entire country since the Naxal outbreak started in the ‘70s in six north Telangana districts, mainly Warangal and Adilabad, Andhra is fighting the war today in about 20 districts. It was here, officials say, that the “source population,” first of the People’s War Group and later for CPI (Maoists) for the movement’s entire central India operations was born.

The police stations are distinct in their design. Unlike in most other states, each one has a three-storey structure, with sentry positions at three levels that help the police cover a far wider area. Opened in 2002, Neelwai’s location is strategic — along the district’s border with Sironcha tahsil, the last Naxal frontier at the southernmost tip of Maharashtra’s Gadchiroli district. It is situated on five acres in a plain area with forests less than 3 km away. Given the facilities and the alertness, why would Naxals attack it at all?

Raghunandan Rao, who monitors Chennur, Kotampalli and Neelwai stations, admits that no “big incident” has taken place there but adds: “Neelwai is important for us since it’s on the threshold of Naxal entry points from across the border...If we didn’t have this, they would have come straight into mandal (block) headquarter towns like Chennur, 23 km inside the district.”

... contd.