By IANS,
Ranchi : The Jharkhand government is planning to appoint a state security advisor before launching the Green Hunt operation – an offensive against Maoists, an official source said Tuesday.
“The state government is seriously contemplating appointing an internal security advisor before launching the Green Hunt operation. The state security advisor will function on the lines of national security advisor and the main function of the advisor will be to deal with the Maoist situation,” a highly placed source in the state government told IANS.
“Top ranking retired IPS (Indian Police Service) officers are under scrutiny for the post of the state internal security advisor,” he added.
The move to appoint the state security advisor has been made as there was some confusion over the state government’s proposed Green Hunt operation.
The Shibu Soren government on several occasions has been criticised for being soft on the Leftwing ultras.
“The move to appoint the state security advisor was planned as the state wants to fight the Maoists but at the same time is not in favour of harassing or killing innocent villagers,” the state government source said.
“There is also need to free innocent villagers booked on charges of being Maoists. The role of the security advisor will be to monitor operations against Maoists and to ensure no innocent person is harassed in the process,” he added.
The Jharkhand government’s plans assume significance as 18 of the 24 districts have presence of Maoists guerrillas.
Six Maoist organisations are known to be operating in the state.
Jharkhand will soon launch the Green Hunt operation — a joint offensive with neighbouring Bihar, Orissa and West Bengal against Maoists.
Union Home Minister P. Chidamabram last month held a meeting of chief ministers and officials of the four states on launch of joint and coordinated operations against Maoists.