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Naxal menace under check except for Chhattisgarh

	April 03, 2006

The Centre says that the Naxalite violence was on the rise this year in Chhattisgarh, but the situation in 12 other affected states was by and large under control. Union Home Secretary V.K. Duggal said this in New Delhi on March 31 after a day long meeting with the representatives of 13 Naxalite-hit states.



He said the situation could worsen if steps are not taken on the socio-economic and security fronts.



Duggal said if Chhattisgarh was excluded, the number of incidents and casualties because of Naxalite violence in the country would come down by at least half. But in Chhattisgarh which bore the brunt of Naxalite attacks in the first quarter of this year, 162 incidents were reported compared to 97 in the same period last year.



There was a consensus at the meeting that self-defence groups are useful in checking Naxalite violence. But it was emphasised that there is a need to ensure that local resistance was encouraged in areas effectively dominated by the security forces so that the people there did not become vulnerable to Naxalite attacks.



The meeting, attended by the police chiefs and the Chief Secretaries of 13 affected States and a number of Central Ministries, also discussed the recent Naxal attacks on railway property, including the detention of a passenger train in Latehar in Jharkhand on March 13.





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Chhattisgarh Minister threatened to pay Rs 10 lakhs



Maoist rebels in Chhattisgarh have warned a senior minister that they will behead him if he fails to pay them Rs 10 lakhs. The shocked minister, Nankiram Kanwar, who holds the Agriculture and Food and Civil Supplies portfolios, has sought extra police protection. He said he “would prefer to die than honour the diktat of the rebels”.



Of the 13 states affected by violence perpetrated by left wing guerrillas, Chhattisgarh has been the hardest hit.





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A four-pronged strategy was discussed to strengthen the Railway Protection Force, the Government Railway Police, the State police and intelligence agencies.



To a query on strengthening the police force, Duggal said that as a first step, all States were asked to fill up vacancies, which often ran into a few thousands. Bihar was making efforts to fill 17,000 vacancies.



Jharkhand recently recruited 11,000 constables and still 1,000 vacancies remained. The number of vacancies in Andhra Pradesh was about 6,000.



The meeting decided to extend the scheme of Security Related Expenditure (SRE) for Naxal areas by another five years. For this, Rs. 250 crore has been earmarked.



The States were asked to speed up implementation of land reforms. Another area of concern was streamlining delivery mechanisms for implementation of the National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme, Bharat Nirman, Backward Districts Initiative and the Prime Minister’s Rural Roads Programme.



The Naxal affected state Governments have also been asked to shift top Naxal leaders in jails to high security cells. The direction comes in the wake of the Jehanabad jail break incident.



Meanwhile, two Government officials taken hostage by Maoist activists in Orissa have appealed to the State Government to ensure their safe release. The officer-in-charge of a police station, Ranjan Kumar Malik and Udaigiri sub-jail superintendent Rabi Narain Sethi, were abducted by Maoist rebels after a two-hour gun-battle on March 24. The Naxalites had killed three policemen when they ransacked Udaigiri town.





Five Maoists killed in gun battle in Andhra Pradesh



Five Maoist guerrillas were gunned down by police during a gun battle on Sunday, April 2, in Andhra Pradesh. Police said the rebels belonging to the Communist Party of India-Maoist were killed in the forests of Venkatapuram in Khammam district, 250 kilometres northeast of Hyderabad. The area borders Chhattisgarh state that too is affected by Maoist violence.



More than 6,000 people, including 4,000 Maoists, have been killed in Andhra Pradesh in violence by the rebels.