Rourkela police on alert ahead of Jharkhand Assembly elections

ROURKELA: In the run-up to the Jharkhand Assembly polls in two phases, Rourkela police and their counterpart from West Singhbhum, are on alert to thwart any attempt by Maoists to disrupt the elections.

Train and bus routes to Jharkhand have been put under intense scrutiny to prevent flow of excise and narcotic substances to the poll-bound vulnerable pockets of the neighbouring state. The move comes in the wake of Bihar-Jharkhand Special Area Committee of the outlawed CPI (Maoist) outfit asking Jharkhand voters to boycott the election through posters and banners.

Of late, there has been an uptick in Maoist violence in the vast Sarada forest in West Singhbhum district which shares 75 km of porous border with Sundargarh district in Odisha which stretches from Bisra to Koida.

Rourkela SP Nitesh Wadhwani said personnel of Rourkela police in coordination with their West Singhbhum counterparts are regularly carrying out anti-Naxal operations along the Odisha-Jharkand border to allow little room for Maoists to cause disruptive activities in the neighbouring state using Odisha soil.