Centre’s plan on
Naxal menace
GANDHIDHAM (Gujarat),
Dec 19 (UNI) — The Centre will call a meeting of
Naxalite-affected states in New Delhi, possibly after
Assembly elections due early next year, to devise a
common strategy to fight the menace posed by Left ultras,
Union Home Minister L.K. Advani said today.
The Centre wanted to
co-ordinate the efforts of different states which aimed
at tackling the (Naxalite) menace, he told journalists
here after formally inaugurating the IFFCO’s Kandla
plant expansion II near Gandhidham.
Mr Advani indicated that
the proposed convention was likely to be called after the
elections to the state Assemblies, including those in
Bihar which he said the Centre wanted to invite to the
meeting as it was “badly affected by ultra
violence”.
The Home Minister said
the previous state meeting in Hyderabad last year had
certainly yielded good results in respect of
co-ordination, sharing and pooling of information on
Naxalite activities.
He said though law and
order was a state subject, but the problem (of Naxalite
violence) was assuming a dimension that warranted a
concerted campaign.
Mr Advani dismissed the
suggestion that the recent incidence of violence in
Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh increased because of
“complacency” on the part of these states.
There was no laxity but the (Left ultra) problem required
to be dealt at different levels, he said.
As to his party’s
alliance with the Shiv Sena in Maharashtra, Mr Advani
said both the BJP and the Sena leaders have agreed to
evolve a common (political) strategy and to erase the
prevailing impression about their working at cross
purposes.
Meanwhile, all
differences among the leaders of the two parties in the
states would be sorted out and will start working
together.
Later addressing a
public meeting, Mr Advani said that the country has a
potential to double agricultural production. For this
economists and policy-makers should realise that the
agriculture sector had to be given due importance as the
country’s strength lies in farming community.
He pointed out so far
more importance had been given to industry and trade. The
minister said the country has already achieved remarkable
success in the information technology and Internet
connectivity to become a superpower in the 21st century.
Chemicals and
Fertilisers Minister Suresh Prabhu said the government
would soon prepare a long-term new fertiliser policy and
explore possibilities of setting up plants in the country
to manufacture potassic fertilisers.
He mentioned that the
country had achieved 90 per cent self-sufficiency in urea
production and about 95 per cent in case of phosphatic
nutrients.
Minister of State for
Chemicals and Fertilisers Ramesh Bais, Gujarat Assembly
Speaker Dhirubhai Shah and IFFCO Chairman S.K. Jakhar
also spoke on the occasion.
The Centre was keeping a
close watch on the situation in Madhya Pradesh, Andhra
Pradesh and Bihar in view of the sudden spurt in violence
by the Left wing extremists particularly the Peoples War
Group (PWG), sources in the Ministry of Home Affairs
(MHA) said today.
Union Home Secretary
Kamal Pande has convened a meeting of the coordination
committee, an apex body of the five extremist-infested
states at Hyderabad in early January to discuss the
latest situation in the aftermath of stepped up violence
by the PWG in the three states. The meeting will be
attended by the Chief Secretaries and Directors General
of Police of Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar,
Maharashtra and Orissa the states identified as affected
by Left wing extremist violence by the Union Home
Ministry.
The meeting has been
convened in the wake of a series of violent incidents in
the affected states last week. These include murder of a
state Minister, attack on the house of an MP
The meeting will be
attended by the Chief Secretaries and Directors General
of Police of Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar,
Maharashtra and Orissa the states identified as affected
by Left wing extremist violence by the Union Home
Ministry.
Earlier Madhya Pradesh
Chief Minister Digvijay Singh also called on Prime
Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee yesterday to brief him on
the murder of state Transport Minister Likhibhai Kawre on
Thursday.
The Union Home Ministry
has formulated a scheme for reimbursement of
security-related expenditure to the affected states which
in turn are to send their proposals for scrutiny by a
standing committee.
On the recommendations
of a team of officers which visited the affected states,
Rs 10 crore has been released to Andhra Pradesh, Rs 3.58
crore to Madhya Pradesh and Rs 1.96 crore to Maharashtra.
The team is likely to visit Bihar soon.
The sources said the
Union Home Ministry has taken up a proposal with the
Department of Telecommunications to introduce direct
dialling facilities in police stations of the bordering
districts of the affected states.
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