Twelve legislators from Assam met Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde here on Friday, and appraised him about the growing Maoist problem in the state.
The legislators, who met Shinde at his office here, discussed the present situation in Assam.
"We, twelve legislators from Assam, met Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde at his office today. We held discussions over the current situation in Assam pertaining to the Maoist problems and other law and order issues as well. We discussed these issues with the Minister. He also acknowledged the gravity of the situation there," said Binanda Saikia, a legislator.
Shinde, on his part, promised to act soon on this issue.
"He is to hold further talks about dealing with the issues of the Maoists, KLO (Kamatapur Liberation Organisation) and the ULFA (United Liberation Front of Asom), and he also added that he would be looking forward to solving the problems soon," said another legislator Abu Taher Bepari.
Asserting that Maoist violence has no place in democratic India, Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh on Wednesday called upon state governments to work with the Centre in combatting this menace.
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Addressing a chief ministers conference on internal security here, Dr. Singh said: "The meeting today has been called in the aftermath of a brutal attack on Congress workers in Chhattisgarh. Such violence has no place in democracy."
"The Centre and States need to join hands to ensure that such events do not recur. I have noted from the agenda papers that there is a separate session on Left Wing Extremism in this conference and I would urge you to make good use of this opportunity to come up with some concrete measures to deal with the very grave threat of Naxalism," he added.
He said that Naxalism had received the Centre"s attention for some time now, and they had a two-pronged strategy involving developmental measures and strikes to take on the Maoists.
"I must also emphasize here that the two-pronged strategy that we have followed so far needs to be strengthened and pursued with rigour. Even as we intensify our efforts to strengthen the security and intelligence apparatus in areas affected by Maoist violence, we should be able to ensure that people residing in Left Wing Extremist affected areas are able to live in an environment of peace and security and derive full benefits of our development efforts," he added.
The Prime Minister's remark came just days after the audacious attack by the Maoists on a Congress convoy in Chhattisgarh"s Bastar District.
Heavily-armed Maoists had on May 25 ambushed a convoy of Congress leaders in Bastar district, killing 28 people, including PCC chief Nand Kumar Patel, his son Dinesh, Congress leader Mahendra Karma and ex-MLA Uday Mudliyar.