Raipur, Sep 18 (IANS) The government of Chhattisgarh has signed an agreement with Mesco Airlines to use a 26-seater chopper for anti-Maoist operations, a senior government official said Tuesday.
“Mesco Airlines and the Chhattisgarh government signed a written agreement on Sep 17 to use the company’s MI-172 26-seater chopper for a period of one year at the monthly cost of Rs.9 million,” Anil Tuteja, Chhattisgarh government’s director of aviation, told IANS.
He said that the chopper will be based at Jagdalpur in the Maoist stronghold of Bastar and will be used only for anti-Maoist operations.
With Monday’s agreement, Chhattisgarh has become the second Indian state after Andhra Pradesh to have a chopper facility to take on Maoist guerrillas. The terrorists have been holed up in the state’s forested pockets for about three decades and it is difficult for security forces to reach their hideouts as landmines surround the forests.
A home department official said the chopper would mainly be used for surveillance in the interiors of the heavily forested Bastar region spread across 40,000 sq km.
The state has witnessed several cold-blooded killings of civilians and security personnel since June 2005, including the murder of 55 policemen in March this year in Bijapur district.
“The chopper facility will allow us to keep a close watch on rebel movements, their terror activities and pound their hideouts. Evacuation of troopers from Maoist battle zones will be now faster than ever before,” the official added.