Joint drive:Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram, flanked by Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh (second from left) and Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, addresses a press conference in New Delhi on Tuesday.
NEW DELHI: Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram on Tuesday offered Orissa and Chhattisgarh the Centre's full support to face the challenge of Maoists.
Earlier, he held an hour-long meeting with Chief Ministers Naveen Patnaik and Raman Singh, the police chiefs of the two States and top officials of the Ministry, and reviewed the security situation in the States. Joint operations of the Central and State police forces would be launched against the Maoists along the inter-State borders, he said.
“We have made very clear that no operation will be conducted without the complements of the State police. The earlier practice has completely been discontinued for a year and a half. Now all operations are conducted by the paramilitary forces with the complements of State police. All operations now are joint operations,” Mr. Chidambaram, flanked by Mr. Patnaik and Dr. Singh, told a press conference.
The Home Minister said violent incidents had been reported in areas falling under 270 police stations in 64 districts in eight States. “However, the number of incidents and the number of casualties are lower than that in the corresponding period last year,” he said in a statement.
Up to June 14, 2011, there were 811 incidents (1,025 last year) resulting in 270 deaths (473 last year). Of the 270 killed, 190 were civilians (296 last year) and 80 security forces personnel (177 last year).
Mr. Chidambaram said the CPI (Maoist) and other left-wing extremist groups continued to target and kill civilians after branding them police informers. Mr. Chidambaram said left-wing extremist groups continued to target infrastructure and businesses. “This year there were 13 attacks on railway property; 18 telephone exchanges and towers were attacked; four panchayat bhavans and 12 school buildings were destroyed; and 82 roads and culverts were also damaged.” The security forces confronted the challenges of left-wing extremists with “courage and restraint.” There had been 125 encounters and 78 extremists neutralised. Besides, 883 extremists had been arrested, 243 had surrendered and 315 arms recovered.
The security forces had apprehended top leaders of the CPI (Maoist). Of the 14 politburo members, seven were arrested. Subsequently, one escaped from a jail in Bihar and another jumped bail after he was released by a court in Andhra Pradesh. As many as 11 members of the central committee were also arrested and were in judicial custody.
Chhattisgarh had reported 218 incidents with 90 deaths and Orissa 84 incidents with 26 deaths. Although the numbers were lower than that in last year, the level of violence was unacceptable. “The Central government has offered its full support to the two State governments to face the challenge of left-wing extremism through a two-pronged strategy of development and police action,” Mr. Chidambaram said.
On the development side, under the Integrated Action Plan of 2010-11 and 2011-12, for which Rs. 55 crore had been allotted to each of the 60 affected districts, 18,724 works were taken up in Chhattisgarh and 10,427 in Orissa. Of these, 2,237 works in Chhattisgarh and 2,693 works in Orissa had been completed. The Chhattisgarh Chief Minister dismissed suggestions that Naxal violence had hit the inflow of investment in the State, saying his government had received 2,000 applications for setting up industries.
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