Naxals anti-poor: Rajnath Singh

Calling naxals anti-poor, Home Minister Rajnath Singh said today the government wants to end leftwing extremism by taking forward development works, and praised Jharkhand government for its efforts to curb naxalism.

Singh held a high-level meeting on leftwing extremism in Ranchi with Chief Minister Raghubar Das and senior officials.

"I appreciate the work done under the leadership of Raghubar Das. I realised in today's meeting, along with the chief minister all officers showed a pledge to end leftwing extremism. This pledge will definitely be fulfilled, I am confident," the home minister said.

Singh said the government did not want to end naxalism through violence, but the security forces have to take action to defend themselves when attacked.

"We want to deal with Maoist extremists by moving forward development works," he said.

The problem is naxals put hurdles, he said. "I would like to say they are anti-poor," Singh, flanked by Das, said at a press conference here.

He said the naxals want the poor to remain poor, deprived to stay deprived and backward areas to remain backward.

Singh said the Jharkhand government has effectively worked on all these fronts. He said whatever assistance the state has sought from the Centre has been taken cognisance of and "we will try to sort it out".

The naxals are becoming crorepatis and their children study in good schools and colleges in the country and abroad.

He repeated his previous call to naxals to drop weapons and talk to the government.

The success achieved in controlling leftwing extremism in the past four years in the northeastern states is not ordinary, he said, adding, "we are getting support from people".

Asked about the request by Jammu and Kashmir government to declare a unilateral ceasefire during Ramzan, Singh said the government has not yet received any formal proposal on the issue.

"If anything comes, we will see," Singh told reporters.

He also said that elaborate security arrangements would be made for the annual Amarnath Yatra.