NEW DELHI: The Indian government’s plan to
fight Naxalism through development will be thoroughly tested during
the chief ministers’ conference on internal security on December 20
when Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh will seek the “report cards”
of 33 districts which have been identified as worst affected by
Naxal terror.
Chief secretaries of eight states, where these 33
districts are located, will have to tell the PM about the
initiatives taken to ensure overall development in the past three
months, sources in the home ministry said. The decision to seek
“report cards” was taken by the home ministry after an
inter-ministerial group (IMG), chaired by additional secretary Vinay
Kumar, met to review the overall situation in these districts.
Incidentally, more than 20% of police stations in
these 33 districts have reported Naxal violence with relatively
higher number of casualties. “The states concerned will be asked to
come with the progress report of these districts when their chief
ministers attend the conference,” said a senior official.
Of the 33 Naxal-hit districts, Jharkhand accounts
for 10 and Chhattisgarh for seven. These two states, in fact,
accounted for more than two-thirds of the 571 deaths in the country
due to Naxal violence till October 31.
The Centre has identified one district each in
Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh in the new category
for overall development on priority basis. While six remaining
districts belong to Bihar, five are in Orissa and two in Maharashtra.
Though the IMG meeting also took note of ongoing
development works in other Naxal-affected districts across 13
states, the focus was on the new block of 33. Currently, 165
districts in the country have Naxal presence in varying degrees.
Besides senior home ministry officials, joint
secretary-rank officers from the ministries of panchayati raj, rural
development, tribal affairs, elementary education, health, forest,
information and broadcasting, environment, women and child
development and agriculture also attended the IMG meeting.
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