Patnaik calls for calibrated action to tackle Maoist problem

Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik today called for serious analysis, strategic review and calibrated action to tackle the Maoist problem.
Addressing a conclave of chief ministers and top officers of 10 Maoist-hit states, Patnaik stated that left wing extremism (LWE) was one of the most critical internal security challenges faced by the country in present times.
The meeting was chaired by Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh.
He described the recent Maoist attack in Sukma district in Chhattisgarh in which 25 CRPF personnel were massacred as "highly disconcerting".
He said the Centre should not claim reimbursement from states of expenditure on deployment of central armed police forces in LWE-affected areas since it was a national internal security threat and the state governments themselves were investing sizeably from their own meagre resources to contain the menace.

Patnaik reiterated his demand that the central government should provide two extra battalions of central armed police force (CAPF) to Odisha immediately to enable the state to take effective measures to contain infiltration of Maoist cadres from Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh.
The chief minister highlighted that determined efforts of the state to contain extremist activities had been substantially successful in weaning away the population in the affected areas of the state from the ideology of violence and extremism.
On the development front, Patnaik said the state government's focus on holistic development of tribal districts in the southern part of the state was paying dividends through significant enhancement of human resource.