Govt to clear Integrated Action Plan for Naxal districts soon

The government will soon approve an Integrated Action Plan, including a financial aid of Rs13,742 crore, for infrastructural development in Naxal-hit districts in the country.

The plan spread over a period of three years will aim at development of infrastructure and facilities like drinking water, electricity, roads, sanitation and health services.

Besides, it will envisage continuous efforts to improve governance like implementation of Panchayats Extension (to Schedule Areas) Act of 1996 (PESA) so as to give the tribals the right to use minor forest produce.

"Initially, 35 left wing extremist affected districts will be given Rs45-50 crore for setting up primary health care, educational and sanitation facilities. Later, it can be extended to other districts as well," Union home minister PC Chidambaram said at a national conference on forestry administration in Naxal-affected areas.

He said, "This will be in the addition to the existing security related schemes being doled out."

Stressing that development was key to the growth of the tribals and forest dwellers, he said, "However much we may romanticise life in the forests, let us remember they will remain poor as long as they live the way they have lived."

"Unless we bring to them modern education, sanitation, better quality drinking water, more nutritious food they will remain what they are -- with the highest infant mortality rate, highest mortality rate," he said.

The home minister felt that abject poverty was a breeding ground for extremism.

Chidambaram also tried to dispel the myth that the larger the population is of the scheduled tribes, the greater is the potential for supporting Naxalites.

The facts speak otherwise, he said giving example of Sonebhadra district in Uttar Pradesh where ST population is merely 0.03%. Similarly, five of six Naxalite-hit districts of Bihar have "zero ST population," he said.