P Chidambaram’s Gadchiroli visit tomorrow fails to enthuse locals

Union home minister P Chidambaram is visiting Gadchiroli on December 28 to review the security scenario and development initiatives in areas under Maoist influence.

Though the itinerary has been kept under wraps, the home minister’s visit, his first to the district that is considered one of the most backward in the country, assumes significance since the area is contiguous to the affected Bastar region of Chhattisgarh, a part of Maoists’ Dandakaranya zone, and has witnessed a rise in naxal violence in the past two years. Five policemen and four civilians have been killed in three months, with the rebels ruthlessly assassinating civilians over the slightest suspicion of being police informers. The Maoists are observing PLGA (People’s Liberation Guerilla Army) month in the district.

Chidambaram is expected to review the special anti-Maoist operations for which the Centre has deployed paramilitary forces since over a year now to support the state troops in what is said to be a clear-and-hold strategy. The idea is that the security troops will clear the villages of the Maoist hold and the administration will move in to hasten development activities. However, this strategy hasn’t worked on the ground so far.

Top sources said that the home minister will also review the integrated development plan for the district. The Centre had mooted an integrated approach for the 35 most extremist-affected districts, which also include of the state’s Gadchiroli and Gondia districts, to step up developmental activity.

However, the Centre has only sanctioned Rs55 crore under the plan, to be spent over two years — Rs25 crore in this fiscal, and Rs30 crore in the next year. In the light of Gadchiroli administration’s proposal of Rs521-crore for the plan, the central provision is peanuts and doesn’t help the cause in any way, sources say. The state government announced a Rs650-crore package for the district during the recently concluded winter session of the legislature, but the budgetary allocations are yet to be made.

While the home minister will review how the administration plans to use the money, his focus will be on taking stock of the security situation after the deployment of CRPF battalions in the district. It has been almost a year that the central paramilitary forces have been deployed along the Maharashtra-Chhattisgarh border.

However, sources in the police say that in the absence of a cogent and joint strategy, the force-multiplier effect is yet to be seen.