‘UAVs can’t track Maoist movements in monsoon’
Aerial surveillance of Naxal hideouts to avert strikes by Maoist groups may take a while as the Centre has decided to put on hold its move to deploy Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) in the next few months. The home ministry had asked the National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO) to take out its six UAVs, lying in cold
storage, for deployment in the ani-Naxal operations. However, the approaching monsoon season is expected to put a spanner in the government’s efforts, as security forces are expected to slow down their operations in the dense and hilly terrains where Maoists are ruling the roost.
“It will not be possible for the UAVs to do track the movements of Maoists once the rainy season starts. We may have to wait till the year-end to deploy UAVs,” a home ministry official said. Government sources that security forces will be slowing down anti-Naxal operations, and are hoping that the ultras also slow down their movements for the next six months. “The effect of the monsoon season beginning July lasts till December making movement of security forces extremely difficult,” a police officer engaged in the anti-Nasal operations said.
Meanwhile, the government is working to secure the porous Indo-Nepal border to prevent cross-border movement of Maoists. The Cabinet Committee on Security on Thursday cleared the raising of 16 battalions of Sashtra Seema Bal (SSB) during the next three years at an estimated cost of Rs 1,800 crore, official sources said.
A total of 32 battalions of the Sashtra Seema Bal are expected to be raised for deployment along the Indo-Nepal and Indo-Bhutan border.
The sources pointed out that the move is also directed at reigning the movements of Maoists groups who may use cross-border linkages to get arms.
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