The Union Home Ministry on Wednesday directed Naxal-affected states to carry out coordinated operations to deal with the menace effectively.
The direction was given at a high-level meeting of the Home Ministry to review the situation in the badly-hit states of Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh and Orissa.
Special Secretary (Internal Security) Raman Srivastava, who chaired the meeting, asked the top police brass of these
states to assess the requirement of security forces for it.
During the two-hour meeting, the Home Ministry took stock of the security situation of the states and suggested a number of measures to check Maoist activities, an official said.
The meeting came close on the heels of the encounter in Markegaon in Gadchiroli district on Sunday in which 15
policemen were gunned down by the Naxals.
While Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh and Orissa were represented by their police chiefs, Maharashtra was represented by its chief of anti-Naxal operations Shivanandan.
