From Our Correspondent
Agartala: With the insurgency on the wane in Tripura, the Council of Ministers has approved a proposal to withdraw Disturbed Area Act from nine police stations, official sources said here.
With the decision, the number of police stations under Disturbed Area Act has been reduced from 34 to 25. Side by side, the number of police stations under partially Disturbed Area Act has been increased from six to seven.
Talking to media at Civil Secretariat, Chief Secretary SK Panda on Wednesday said the cabinet after reviewing the overall law and order situation gave a green signal to withdraw Disturbed Area Act from some police stations.
To ensure full proof security, the Road Open Parry (ROP) coverage in some roads including Assam-Agartala National Highway (NH-44) and Ambassa-Gandacherra would be strengthened. “The timing of ROP has been extended from 7 am to 8 pm while it was from 8 am to 5 pm”, he said. In fact, the decision to extend the timing of ROP has been taken to ensure safety of passenger vehicles as well as goods carriers.
The CRPF has been entrusted with providing ROP on the NH-44 while state police is responsible in providing ROP on the Ambassa-Gandacherra road, sources said.
According to security analysts, the vehicular movement along the NH-44 would be increased after extension of the timing of ROP. At present security forces don’t allow vehicles to move on the NH-44 after 5 pm. However, this problem would be mitigated after the new cabinet decision. Following pressure from the Centre, the state had to bring some vulnerable police stations under the ambit of Disturbed Area Act in 90’s so that security personnel get more power to carryout operation against insurgents. Later, the area of Disturbed Area Act was extended to more police stations to bring down the insurgency and the strategy has brought success in tackling insurgency.
