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| Govt allots Rs 7,300 cr to fight Naxal menace |
| Press Trust Of India / New Delhi Oct 10, 2009, 00:35 IST |
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Funds to be disbursed in FY10 and spent over 3 yrs.
With nearly 40,000 para-military personnel being deployed in four Maoist-hit states, the Centre has readied its anti-Naxal plan, which also includes a Rs 7,300-crore package for unleashing developmental works in areas cleared of the Left-wing extremists.
As part of its “holistic” anti-naxal plan, the funds would be disbursed in this year and spent over three years in those areas where the Naxals are driven out.
The key difference in current strategy is that the government will have a heavy concentration of security forces to ensure elimination of the naxals and restoration of civil administration.
“We hope that literally within 30 days of security forces moving in and dominating the area, we should be able to restore civil administration there,” Home Secretary G K Pillai told reporters here.
“In the first year, we will spend Rs 1,000 crore in areas where civil administration is restored after successfully eliminating the Naxal menace. The development package has already been worked out in consultation with the states,” he said.
According to the plan, initially six districts of four states — Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Orissa and Maharashtra — have been chosen to implement the strategy and after its completion, the security forces will be moved into new areas.
So far, the Centre has provided around 40,000 personnel of central paramilitary forces for the anti-Naxal operation and some more would be pumped in.
The Centre is also asking the state governments to take initiatives to strengthen police stations, health centres, schools, public distribution system, roads and security to contractors so that they can carry out normal works.
The government feels the Naxal menace can be wiped out from across the country by 12 months to 30 months. Around 2.5 million people live in areas where Maoists are now having a free run.
“We would love to have more paramilitary forces to restore civil administration in larger areas. But we would for the time being manage with what we have and we are not really calling upon either the Army or the Air Force or the Navy to help us,” the Home Secretary said.
However, the government, apart from using the Air Force helicopters for evacuation and reinforcement purposes, will also take the help of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles and Global Positioning System for reconnaissance and surveillance.
Asked about renewed Maoists violence in some parts of the country, Pillai said the Naxals were trying to show their might as they were worried over the safety of their top leaders.
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