“Srivastava is new to his job and he went there to familiarise himself with the ground realities,” said Singh.

“We also took stock of police preparedness and found that their morale is quite high. We also checked the amount of development work carried out in the area. The Centre is particularly concerned about this,” the DGP added. The team, which returned to Kolkata in the evening, met senior police officers and the district magistrate of West Midnapore.

The DGP said the final assault on the Naxals will be taken up once the states received the additional central forces, which they had sought from the Centre. “An operation of such a mammoth scale was never taken up and requires a lot of additional forces,” Singh said.

Earlier in the day, Home Secretary (West Bengal) Ardhendu Sen said the border districts affected by the Left-Wing Extremism will be divided into various sectors. “The four states have agreed on joint operations. Coordination for this will begin soon. There were 300 active Maoists in the state and the joint forces will operate sector-wise against them on the inter-state borders,” Sen said.

The DGP said that a central intelligence pool will also be created for information sharing among the states.