Home Min meet on Naxals in Patna today
Monday, April 16, 2007
| Home Min meet on Naxals in Patna today |
 New Delhi, April 16: After reviewing operational strategies to tackle Naxalite activities in nine states, the Union Home Ministry will now focus on development in the affected areas at a meeting of an Inter-Ministerial Group (IMG) in Patna today. The IMG meet, to be chaired by the ministry's Additional Secretary (Naxal Management) Vinay Kumar, will take a close look at developmental issues as the government considers Naxalism is not merely a law and order problem and has deep socio-economic dimensions, sources said. Against this backdrop, the centre funds the Backward Districts Initiative (BDI) programme to fill critical gaps in physical and social development in areas hit by Maoist violence. Funds for development in these areas are given under the Backward Regions Grant Fund (BRGF) scheme. The IMG meeting takes place just two days after the meeting of the Home Ministry's task force on Naxalism in Hyderabad on Friday, where the agenda included joint strategies to tackle Naxals, modernising intelligence gathering, and improving inter-state coordination to meet the target of eliminating the menace in the next three years. The meeting of the task force, headed by Special Secretary (internal security) M L Kumawat, was attended by nodal officers for anti-Naxalite operations in all nine states affected by Left-wing extremism. These states are Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh and Orissa. The Naxalites are exploring new pastures in parts of Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Uttarakhand, a Home Ministry report said. ZEE |
posted by Resistance 4/16/2007 10:16:00 AM,
