UNION HOME MINISTER NOT SATISFIED WITH ODISHA GOVT ANTI MAOIST STAND

UNION HOME MINISTER NOT SATISFIED WITH ODISHA GOVT ANTI MAOIST STAND 10/11/2011 :
ODISHA UPDATE:

On his recent recent visit to Odisha on Wednesday, the Union Home Minister Mr. P. Chindabaram showed his great concern over the Maoist issues which is rampant and Odisha government ineffectiveness to combat the Maoist menace in spite of providing good numbers of security personnel and finance from the centre, which is a routine visit of the Union Home Minister to assess the situations arising out of Maoist violence in the country.

In Bhubaneswar, Chidambaram expressed concern over the increasing Maoist violence in Odisha despite deployment of additional ten thousand central forces.
Speaking to media after meeting Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik at the state secretariat, the home minister said the causality figure of civilian and security forces in the state this year stood at 48 by the end of October.

"By the end of the year it may go a little beyond 50, that is an unacceptably high level of casualties," he said.

"We have inducted 10,000 more central armed police constabulary and officers in the state. I have impressed upon the state government and we must show results," he said.

Reacting, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said the casualties in the state due to Maoist violence were "considerably less" compared to last year.

Union Home Minister further stated that there were places in 60 police station areas in Odisha that were badly affected by the Maoist. He advised the Odisha government” to learn from other states and centre how to handle the Maoist violence”.

The CM of Odisha said that the govt is alert and vigilant about Maoist activities. Funds earmarked for development work in Maoist-affected areas have been utilized very well, he said.

The Chief Minister said the Government also raised the issue of requirement of funds for completing flood relief work in the State quickly.
Official sources said the issue of how the LWE affects education was also discussed. About 150 schools will be opened and 7,000 teachers appointed in the Maoist- affected areas of the State.

An impact assessment of the SRE (Security related expenditure) scheme is to be done for the entire state of Odisha. The state govt further said that now the SRE scheme is confined to 15 districts and sked the Union Minister to include five more districts “ Ganjam, Nayagarh, Denkanal, Jajpur and Bargarh under the IAP ( Integrated Action Plan) .

Increasing Maoist-related violence over the past few years has become a major cause of concern for the government with officials expressing helplessness in tackling the situation. According to official sources, the Communist Party of India-Maoist has influence in at least eight of the state’s 30 districts. They are Malkangiri, Koraput, Rayagada, Gajapati, Sambalpur, Deogarh, Sundargarh and Mayurbhanj.
Besides, with the increase in the base of the naxalities 20 out of 30 districts, the dependence of the State Government on the CRPF has also increased over the year’s .Now the strength of the crpf has increased to 73 companies and the State govt wants more deployment.

Knowing the way the police forces operate it does not at all come as a great surprise that it is unable to make any headway in the counter insurgency against Maoist extremists. There is hardly any improvement in the colonial mind set of the forces since British left the country. If anything, it has deteriorated because of heavy political interference. For a common man the police are no more than an instrument of oppression. With the law enforcement by and large having abdicated its responsibility, it should not come as surprise that Maoists are thriving under the pretext of savior of the poor.

Home Minster will continue to whistle in the dark unless the government forces are trained in emotional intelligence, empathy, subtlety, sophistication, and political adroitness in meeting the Maoist challenge and move away from the use of brute force solutions.

The Naxal problem must be seen in a new perspective. As the few parts of the country are developing fast but at the same time remote rural areas are stagnant as earlier. The media has accentuated their aspirations as well but the prevailing system failed to deliver. So countering violence with violence is no solution. Govt needs to act to bring them in the mainstream of development.

SIDDHARTHA SHANKAR MISHRA,
BUREAU CHIEF,
THESE DAYS, TASVER E HIND,
ORISSA, SAMBALPUR