States to Coordinate Actions against Maoists: Chidambaram
Union Home Minister P Chidambaram has declared that states have agreed upon coordinately act against Maoists rebels and that government’s objective is to reassert authority in rebel bastions, reported IANS.
“(Our aim is) to reassert the civil administration to be followed immediately by development in areas dominated by Naxalites for quite some years,” Chidambaram was quoted as saying.
The minister made the statement following a meeting with top officials of Orissa, Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh in Raipur.
“The meeting was successful”, Chidambaram was quoted as saying while talking to reporters. “We identified progress we made. We identified steps to be taken. The operations will continue. Our goal is not to kill anyone but to reassert the civil administration to be followed immediately by development in areas dominated by Naxalites for quite some years.”
The minister presided over a two-hour meeting at the State secretariat with chief minister Raman Singh in which chief minister of Orissa Navin Patnaik, Maharashtra Home Minister RR Patil and officials of paramilitary forces were also present, said report.
Chidambaram said that the central government was giving troops and technology to states to combat the outlawed Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist), report said.
“My approach to the CPI-Maoist and other such banned organisations is that you will suspend violence and we will talk. But they are killing people. Even yesterday they killed two boys in Chhattisgarh who belonged to primitive tribes as they wanted to get recruited in (the Indian) army,” he was quoted as saying.
“The coordinated operation (against Maoists) is just a few weeks old. The progress is satisfactory and in future it will be more satisfactory. In many places Naxalites are retreating and we welcome it. But in some areas they are engaged in battle,” Chidambaram said.
