Govt to unroll Rs7,300-crore package for Maoist-hit areas

Waking up to the reality that the use of force alone won’t suffice in the regions hit by Maoist insurgency, the government has decided to unfold a Rs7,300-crore package for the development of these areas.

Attorney general (AG) GE Vahanvati submitted this before a Supreme Court bench on Monday. Earlier in the day, in her address to parliament, President Pratibha Patil had expressed her government’s resolve to vigorously tackle the “senseless and cowardly” attacks on security forces by the Maoists.

Both pronouncements make it clear that the government is taking a two-pronged approach to combat the Left insurgent menace.
While the cabinet has approved the package, Vahanvati said, the government was sceptical about its implementation in view of Maoist interference in such schemes. Details of the package would be submitted before the court, he told a bench of justices B Sudershan Reddy and SS Nijjar.

The AG’s statement came during the hearing of the suspected ‘killing’ of 12 tribals by security forces in Chhattisgarh’s Dantewada district. Six of the supposedly dead tribals were found alive. The court has directed the presence of the remaining six. All of them had disappeared soon after they filed a petition demanding a CBI probe into the allegations of excesses by the forces.