Steps taken to combat Maoists yielding results: Pillai

RAIPUR - Steps taken to combat Maoist insurgency have slowly started yielding results with ration shops opening and weekly markets being held in remote areas of Chhattisgarh due to the presence of security forces, union Home Secretary G.K. Pillai said here Tuesday.

“Now ration shops are opened, regular weekly markets are being held, school buildings are being constructed and more importantly, contractors are now eager for bidding for tenders being floated for development schemes in the area,” he said, giving details about the ongoing anti-Maoist drives in many Chhattisgarh districts and citing the example of tribal-dominated Kanker.

“We do realise that we do not have adequate number of forces. It could take some time to recruit the personnel and provide them with training before being put in the Maoist areas,” he said after touring Maoist-hit pockets in Chhattisgarh over two days and chairing a security review meet here.

“It is the firm commitment of the government to complete the anti-Naxalite (Maoist) operations once adequate number of state police personnel and central paramilitary forces (CPMF) were recruited, trained and deployed in the affected areas,” he added.

On the reported lack of coordination between Chhattisgarh Police and the central paramilitary forces in the state, the home secretary said “all such differences have been sorted out”.

Asked about the demand for deploying the army in Maoist-affected areas, he said the cabinet committee on security had decided against it and hence there was no immediate need for its deployment or declaring tribal Bastar as a disturbed area.

He added that air support would be given to the security personnel only for logistic and evacuation purposes and not for any offensive.

Pillai said 34 districts in the country were being classified as the worst Left-wing extremism affected districts while 83 districts were slightly or partially affected by the problem. There are 220 districts where some Maoist related incidents have taken place, he added.

He said Home Minister P. Chidambaram has convened a meeting of chief ministers, chief secretaries and police chiefs of all Maoist-affected states in New Delhi July 14 to discuss the issue comprehensively.

Pillai Monday visited Rajnandgaon district in state’s western region and then Kanker, part of the 40,000 sq km Maoist stronghold Bastar region, to get inputs from the ground level about development and insurgency.

Pillai had put off his trip to restive Dantewada Tuesday as his chopper did not take off from Raipur due to poor weather but he held a security review meeting in the state capital before flying back to New Delhi.

He also met Governor Shekhar Dutt, Chief Minister Raman Singh and senior civil and police officials, including district collectors of Dantewada and Bijapur.

Maoist rebels ambushed Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel in Narayanpur district June 29, killing 27 people.

Chhattisgarh has been rocked by a series of blasts and gunfights in 2010. In the last three months alone, over 150 people, mostly security personnel, have been killed. This includes the massacre of 76 security personnel in Dantewada April 6.