Home Ministry to discuss Maoists with states

Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi will on Friday chair a review meeting with Secretaries of central ministries and states on issues of development in areas affected by Maoists.

The Chief Secretaries of seven states -- Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Telangana and Maharashtra -- will attend the meeting, said an official statement.

The meeting will have representation of the Department of Telecom, Road Transport and Highway Ministry, Environment Ministry, Forest Ministry and Health Ministry among others.

The statement said the home ministry had adopted a multi-pronged strategy to deal with Maoist affected areas including security related intervention, development measures and ensuring rights and entitlement of local communities.

"Special projects such as construction of roads, installation of mobile towers and construction of fortified police stations have been sanctioned by the government.

"The development works are implemented through the states and relate to various schemes/programmes of the development ministries of the government," said the statement.

--IANS

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