Govt offers help in fighting red terror

The Union government on Tuesday offered “full support and coordination to all eight states facing Naxal violence” and said though statistically incidents and casualties has gone down “the level of violence is unacceptable”.

Home minister P Chidambaram was reviewing the law and order situation with the chief ministers of Orissa and Chhattisgarh, Naveen Patnaik and Raman Singh, in the national capital.
After the meeting, Chidambaram said the Centre has offered its full support to the two state governments to face the challenge of Left-wing extremism through the two-pronged strategy of development and police action.

In a statement issued after the review meeting, he said: “Today, we reviewed the situation in Chhattisgarh and Orissa, especially the area along the border of the two states. Chhattisgarh has reported 218 incidents with 90 deaths and Orissa has reported 84 incidents with 26 deaths. Although the numbers are lower than the last year, the level of violence is unacceptable.”

He further said: “On the development side, under the Integrated Action Plan of 2010-11 and 2011-12, under which Rs55 crore has been allotted to each of the 60 affected districts, 18,724 works have been taken up in Chhattisgarh and 10,427 works have been taken up in Orissa. Of these, 2,237 works in Chhattisgarh and 2,693 works in Orissa have been completed.”