Though the carving out of new districts in Andhra Pradesh has been drawing mixed reactions, the mood in the camps of the security forces engaged in anti-Maoist operations is upbeat.
They feel that the carving out of Alluri Sitharamaraju (ASR) district is a strategic move to tackle the left wing extremists.
The new district is proposed to be carved out of Visakhapatnam district and contains all the 11 Maoist-infested mandals in the Visakha Agency and 11 mandals from East Godavari, which have a Maoist presence.
A few senior police officers feel that the focus will improve both on containing the Maoists, as well as on the development front.
The district will now be under the control of a Superintendent of Police and the entire police force will be able to concentrate on containing the left wing extremism.
More funding
At present, Visakha Agency is monitored by the SP of Visakhapatnam, who has about three ASPs in his team to monitor the LWE areas. He has other duties, which include policing the Visakha rural region, which includes the Anakapalle sub-division. But once the bifurcation is done, the entire Agency area will be under a new SP, who can have more number of ASPs to police the district, said a senior police officer.
The new district, since it has already been identified by the Union Government as LWE-affected region, will get more funds for development, which includes construction of roads, hospitals and schools and other basic infrastructure.
The funds of the State Government and Special Central Assistance will all be now diverted to this new district, and it need not be utilised for other areas, said another senior police officer, who earlier served as SP of Visakhapatnam.
Both the SP and the District Collector can now focus on development, as this new district is a special district such as Sukma or Bijapur in Chhattisgarh, he said.
Challenges
But the challenge for the State Government is to cater funds, build infrastructure and allot more manpower.
As of now, the State is in no position to either allot funds or recruit more force or build infrastructure. It is learnt that the higher ups have already given instructions to share and use the existing force on deputation.
But if this sharing and deputation continues for long, the district will turn poorer and there are chances of the Maoists, who are on the lowest ebb now, regrouping and turning this region once again into a stronghold.
