The issue of "limited mandate" raised by Home Minister P Chidambaram will be discussed at the "appropriate forum" of the Cabinet, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said today.
"The Home Minister has explained what he meant by his having a limited mandate. These are issues which are strategy issues, hence will be discussed in appropriate forum of the Cabinet whenever an opportunity arises," Singh said.
He was responding when referred to Chidambaram's statement on May 17 that he had "limited mandate" to deal with naxal problem.
However, the next day, the Home Minister had clarified that it was the state governments which have the primary responsibility to tackle the menace of Naxalism and he was making the comment in that context.
Maintaining that naxalism was the biggest internal security challenge of the country, the Prime Minister said dealing with it was primarily the responsibility of states but the Centre would help them.
"As far as I am concerned, I do recognise that law and order is primarily a state responsibility," Singh said.
But, "this is a problem which has acquired (such a) magnitude that cooperation between the Centre and states is absolutely necessary and the Central government must help states in every possible way", he added.
He disagreed that the government had under-estimated the problem of naxalism and said there was no difference of opinion between the Central and the state governments on the issue of left-wing extremism.
"I have spoken to the Chief Ministers of the states many times on naxal issue. The Chief Ministers understand that it is imperative to control naxalism for the country's growth," he said.
The Prime Minister admitted that the Maoists get fundings from various sources which they use for the procurement of arms and ammunition.
