The task force on redsanders will soon don a new ‘avatar'. The ‘image makeover’ does not merely mean a change in the police-forest manpower ratio, but more teeth to pounce on the kingpins.
When the idea was first mooted, the task force was formed with an equal mix of forest guards and policemen. Its nature of duty was quite hazy then, as it is even today. Though it was expected to handle matters of a higher order, the sleuths continued regular policing measures such as holding ‘nakabandi’ (vehicular checks on the highways), taking up combing in the forest and fringe villages etc.
The task force, in its present form, is almost an ad hoc body, where the Superintendents of Police of Chittoor, Tirupati Urban and Kadapa districts voluntarily work in tandem. The brutal stoning to death of two forest officials by redsanders smugglers came as a jolt to both the departments, which decided to go on the offensive. The exercise evidently began with the decision to revamp the task force. The Director-General of Police J.V. Ramudu, who was in Tirupati recently, was learnt to have given the nod for overhauling the existing task force to give it a fairer composition and additional teeth.
According to highly-placed sources, this body will be less of routine policing and more of intelligence and counter operations. It will handle issues of more seriousness like gathering and pursuing tip-offs, following movement of smugglers, tracking down kingpins, going beyond the State borders and even launching onslaughts in alien territories.
As redsanders jungle is spread across Kurnool, Nellore and Prakasam too, it has been decided to form a bigger body by including these three districts. The new task force headed by an IPS official and headquartered at Tirupati, will coordinate with the SPs of these six police districts. The body will have more powers, which will be officialised with the issue of a Government Order, and its head is likely to report directly to the Additional DGP (Law and Order).
This initiative is considered to be a giant leap in taking on the smugglers head-on and curtailing the felling of the precious trees.
