Governor of Chhatisgarh
asks Union Home Minister not to visit
Dandewada Naxal inflicted areas
By R Rajagopalan
In an unusual way the Governor of Chhatisgarh ESL Narasimhan wrote to Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh to resist the temptation of Union Home Minister P Chidambaram to visit Naxal affected areas in Raipur and Dandewada on January 7, 2010 During this visit P Chidambaram shall undertake padayatra on Jan 7, 2009
This is the first time that a Governor stops the official visit of
a union home minister.
ESL Narasimhan is a former Indian Police Service officer of
Andhra Pradesh cadre. Now a Governor of Chhatisgarh.
In a two pages letter to Prime Minister ESL Narasimhan,
said that during operations, such a high dignatory visit would
hamper the strategies and tactics.
P Chidambaram has plans to spend one night with the NGOs
in Naxal affected areas in Chhatisgarh.
ESL Narasimhan having spent 35 years in Intelligence Bureau
and held Director of IB before moving into Raipur Raj Bhavan
Hence Governor knows the operational difficulties in such
Maoisit inflicted areas in his state.
Contacted to speak to Governor or the senior PMO office
for reaction, ADC to Governor said that Governor refuses
to speak to media. Such was blunt reply. However, Union Home Ministry in North Block confirmed the receipt of a letter
from ESL Narasimhan to Prime Minister, as they had received
a copy for advance information. But refused divulge the details.
Meanwhile, Operation Anti-Red Terror has been set into
motion with some 80,000 highly-armed personnel drawn
from three central paramilitary forces and thousands of
state policemen fanning out to take on the Maoists in the
three most Naxal-affected districts in central India
. The districts where the offensive is being unleashed
are Kanker and Rajnandgaon districts in Chhattisgarh,
and Gadchiroli in the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra
The task assigned to them is to drive out the Maoists
and free the areas under their influence, so as to
allow government agencies to launch development
works and restore law and order.
Officials in New Delhi asserted that a
clear-cut line has been given to the forces to avoid
violent conflicts unless they become imperative..
"If they retreat we are not going to hunt and kill them.
They may, however, not retreat peacefully so we are
prepared for any attacks. The forces have been
specially trained to tackle guerrilla-type strikes,
as we do not expect them to get into a head-on
confrontation, especially when we have pushed in
a large number of forces to outnumber them," a
top official who is coordinating the operation said.
The Central Reserve Police Force, Border
Security Force, Indo-Tibetan Border Police
and state police are carrying out the operation jointly.
In the first phase, the forces will move deep into
the interiors of the forest areas to set up their
outposts. Once they establish themselves, they
will venture further into remote areas to mount
an onslaught to cleanse the area of Maoists.
The official said the offensive will include house
to house searches but there will be no violence
unless the forces are attacked. Even their
response will be limited to drive out those
mounting the attacks, he said.
"Once we clean out the areas, the district
administration will step in with development
works. Our task is limited to neutralising the
Maoists who are not allowing the government
staff to do any work in the areas under their
control, and to drive them out," the official added.
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1 comment:
wht is ur take on present situation of andhra??????????????????????????????
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