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Centre to review development work in Naxal pockets of Chhattisgarh

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BS Reporter Kolkata/ Raipur

The Union Government would review progress of the infrastructure development works in the Naxal-infested pockets of the country on Wednesday.

Union Minister for Home P Chidambaram would chair the meeting that would be attended by the Chief Secretaries and Director Generals of Police from the states affected by the Left extremism. The meeting will be held in New Delhi.

Besides Chhattisgarh, officials from West Bengal, Orissa, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Bihar are likely to attend the meeting. Apart from discussing the progress of infrastructure development works, the issue of anti-Naxal operations would also come up for review.

Officials in the state’s home department said that Chhattisgarh would not demand additional force that it had been asking for in the earlier meetings. Instead, it would stress for establishing better coordination between the central paramilitary and state forces to launch effective campaign against the red army.

 

The Union Home Minister had been instrumental in providing Rs 30 crore each to the Naxal-infested districts every year for taking up infrastructure development projects. Since the Union Government had stressed for taking up development works in the red zone as part of campaign against the Left extremists, the issue would also come up for review during the meeting.

The state officials said that the Chhattisgarh government would request the Centre to include more districts in the list of fund allocation from the head. “The state government has recently formed nine more districts, out of which four are worst Naxal-infested,” the officials said.

In the meeting, the state government would stress for bagging separate allocation for the four districts.

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First Published: Feb 22 2012 | 12:02 AM IST

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