MCR HRD Institute of Telangana organised the prestigious “Dr. P Srinivas Memorial Lecture” on “National Security- Challenges of Tackling the Extremism”, as a part of the 93rd Foundation Course for trainee civil servants. The lecture was delivered by Anurag Sharma, IPS (Retd.), Advisor to Government of Telangana (Home).
Anurag Sharma said that while left wing extremism spread its tentacles across multiple States, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh are the only two States which achieved the distinction of successfully eliminating this menace. The key ingredient of their strategy, pointed out Mr Anurag Sharma, was to deploy Greyhounds, a professionally trained and well-equipped force that specialises in countering the guerrilla warfare tactics of the left wing extremists. “This strategy has created a buzz in all other left wing extremism-afflicted States across the country”,he stated with a sense of pride.
Anurag Sharma paid rich tributes to the brave police personnel who laid down their lives in the service of the country while battling left wing extremism and said that the generous rehabilitation package for their families was greatly instrumental in boosting the morale of policemen in general.
Anurag Sharma said that local police should be empowered to take complete responsibility in maintaining law & order in left wing extremism-afflicted areas and stated that deploying paramilitary forces for this purpose is not a viable solution.
“As regards countering insurgency, police response alone would never suffice, but an integrated approach is a must”, said Sri Anurag Sharma. He underlined the importance of good governance by local administration aimed at developing rural areas to ensure availability of all basic facilities, including education health, infrastructure, etc., and above all, putting an end to the age-old practice of exploitation of rural poor by landlords which is at the root of giving rise to extremism. In order to ensure that youth does not fall prey to the left wing ideology, he called upon the trainee civil servants to make proactive efforts to expose its shallowness as a model of development.
Anurag Sharma advised the trainee civil servants to maintain a live contact with people, especially their elected representative, listen to their grievances, and find solution to them.
Anurag Sharma paid rich tributes to Dr P Srinivas, a great martyr, who was brutally murdered by Veerappan on November 10th, 1991. He said that Dr. Srinivas laid down his life upholding the values of honesty, dedication to duty, and courage to stand by principles.
