Jolted by Maoist targeting Congress leaders in Chhattisgarh, the Centre on Monday asked all Left Wing Extremism-hit states to revamp security of political workers and appoint nodal officers to coordinate political programmes so that such deadly attacks do not occur in future.
At the end of Dec, the government had Rs 47,273 crore in the USO fund, with annual accruals of about Rs 6,000 crore.
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy on Monday sought permission from the Centre to carry out a Rs 2,400-crore special road corridor development project to effectively deal with Naxalism, besides requesting for a helicopter to carry out swift air operations.
Expressing confidence that Left wing extremism would be tamed in medium term, Home Minister P Chidambaram on Wednesday said poverty and lack of development in affected areas were the main cause of Naxalism.
Highlighting the low representation of women in the Central Armed Police Forces, a parliamentary committee has asked the Union home ministry to take steps to encourage them to join the services, besides recommending a reservation for transgenders.
The Indian Air Force has requested the government to ensure that states hit by left wing extremism spruce up their infrastructure to ensure safety and security of air force helicopters and men deployed in anti-Naxal operations.
Expressing concern over increase in infiltration attempts, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Sunday that the Centre and the states should launch coordinated efforts to tackle internal security threats.
The Centre has alerted governments of nine naxal affected states in view of the death reports of top Maoist commander Kishenji and asked them to exercise maximum vigil.
Speaking at the Sardar Patel memorial lecture organised by Prasar Bharati, Union Minister Jairam Ramesh said India's left-wing extremism can be solved only if India's polity can rise above partisan political considerations and set aside old Centre versus state arguments to work concertedly to restore people's faith in the administration.
Rejecting the Centre's charge that the Odisha government has failed to contain left-wing extremism, the state's director general of police on Tuesday claimed that Naxal violence had declined in 2011 compared to the year before. "The Naxal situation in most parts of the state had been controlled while it was a cause of concern for the state government in areas bordering Chattishgarh," Director General of Police Manmohan Praharaj wrote to Union Home Secretary R K Singh.
Seeking the cooperation of States in dealing with Left-wing extremism, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday asked the Planning Commission to design a holistic development programme for Naxal-affected areas.
Many IEDs explode even when the troops are on foot and their trigger mechanism gets activated just due to the pressure of the feet. These incidents have injured more than 100 personnel over the last two years, the officer said.
Professional footballers are having to deal with a daily barrage of online hate that threatens their mental health, Germany international Robin Gosens said on Thursday.
Eighty five-year old Swedish writer and political commentator Jan Myrdal was in India recently. Son of Nobel laureates Alva Myrdal and Gunnar Myrdal, Jan talks to Business Standard on elections, politics and the Left-wing extremism in the country.
Three battalions of the Border Security Force comprising more than 3,000 personnel will move across the border from Odisha to Chhattisgarh and an equal number of Indo-Tibetan Border Police units will further move into the Naxal stronghold of Abujhmad as part of a strategy to intensify anti-Maoist operations in their last bastions, official sources said.
Naxal violence claimed maximum lives this year as compared to terrorist and insurgency incidents in Jammu and Kashmir and the northeast, the government on Tuesday told Parliament.
The Centre on Thursday said it was confident of overcoming the Maoist problem in the next three years and had prepared a two-pronged strategy of initiating development and police action in the affected areas.
Maoists violence, militancy in Jammu and Kashmir and insurgency in the Northeast continued to be the top areas of concern for the country's internal security in 2011 with Left wing extremism claiming the most lives.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Tuesday said an "integrated approach" was needed to tackle the Naxal menace as "enforcement action alone" would lead to their wider alienation.
Three security personnel suffered injuries in the fierce gun-battle and a large quantity of weapons was also recovered from the spot, the state police said.
Questioning the government's approach towards Maoists, members of an official panel that had looked into the issue of Left-wing extremism have said that instead of telling the ultras to abjure violence, both sides should declare a ceasefire and create an atmosphere for talks. "If the government is serious enough to alleviate the tribal problem, then it should persuade the Maoists to come for talks," said chairman of the panel and former IAS officer Debabrata Bandopadhyay.
Modi joined the conference virtually and reviewed the action points of the previous conference, an official statement said, adding discussions were held to improve the overall security scenario with more people-friendly initiatives, it said.
The Andhra Pradesh government defended in the Supreme Court its controversial decision to deploy elite anti-Naxatite squad 'Greyhounds' to quell the volatile Telangana agitation in Hyderabad's Osmania University campus on Thursday.
Chhattisgarh, at the centre of the Maoist corridor and which has borne the brunt of vicious naxal attacks in recent times, wants an integrated action plan for development to check the Left Wing Extremism in the country.
Gearing up for a major offensive against Naxals, the government is contemplating to involve the Army to deal with the Left-wing extremism.
With the defence ministry averse to sparing the army to fight Naxals, the Union home ministry will "fend for themselves" and take a fresh look at its strategy to fight Left-wing extremism including reorienting the available paramilitary forces. This was seen as a fall out of Thursday evening's Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) meeting chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, which failed to arrive at a consensus over deployment of Army for fighting Naxals.
Home Minister P Chidambaram on Wednesday asked Naxal-hit states to double the capacity of their police training institutes as also police recruitment to fight the menace of Left-wing extremism.
It is necessary to make incremental progress, state by state, rather than aiming for an illusory knock-out punch against the Maoists, write Dr Shanthie Mariet D'Souza and Dr Bibhu Prasad Routray.
Addressing a seminar on "Left Wing Extremism Situation in India", Pillai said the Maoists might be getting the help of some former soldiers in carrying out subversive activities.
Union Home Minister P Chidambaram will visit Raipur on Monday to monitor the coordination of strategies to combat Left-wing extremism in the region. Chidambaram will emphasis the importance of verifying and forwarding intelligence inputs to the Centre. He will hold a coordination meeting with the director-general of police and the joint director of the Intelligence Bureau posted in Raipur.
On a visit to Maoist-affected states of Chattisgarh and Jharkand, Union Home Minister P Chidambaram on Friday said there is no move to involve the army in the fight against Naxals who pose the "gravest challenge."
The Maoists suspect that the Centre might launch an assault on their de facto headquarters in Chhattisgarh's forest areas soon after the monsoon and have asked their party and cadres to prepare for the 'new brutal offensive being unleashed by the United Progressive Alliance government'.The Maoists suspect that the Chhattisgarh government will very soon launch a major offensive in the massive Abujmaad forests, which is widely known as their military headquarters.
The much anticipated full-fledged operation of the special anti-Naxal force -- Cobrain Left-wing extremism-hit states is set to start soon.
Not only did Prime Minister Manmohan Singh reject Union Home Minister P Chidambaram letter of resignation, but the PM also stood solidly behind him, by directing Cabinet Secretary K M Chandrasekhar to write to all Union Ministers not to criticise the government's handling of the Maoist issue and not to vent their feelings on Left Wing extremism in public fora.
Reacting to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's claim that Naxal problem is the biggest challenge, Bhartiya Janata Party spokesperson Prakash Javadekar found the claim "amusing".
All the seven states hit by Left wing extremism have agreed on a joint action to confront the menace firmly and decisively, and the Centre will provide them full support in terms of security forces and funds, Union Home Minister P Chidambaram said.
The Opposition will be nailing down the government in the winter session of the Parliament starting Thursday for a 'confused' policy on tackling the Maoists -- ruling the roost in 223 districts in 13 states, despite killing of over 2600 people by them in the last three years.
The clearance to raise the 10,000-strong Combat Battalion for Resolute Action (COBRA), under the command and control of the Central Reserve Police Force, was given last evening by the Cabinet Committee on Security chaired by the prime minister.
The Centre has promoted Vijay Raman, a senior Indian Police Service officer as a special director general of Central Reserve Police Force to exclusively handle the left-wing extremism challenging the country.
The appointments committee of the cabinet headed by the prime minister had on October 1 issued the order for the appointment of Singh who has service till December 2024.
