374 civilians, policemen killed in naxal violence in Chhattisgarh

New Delhi, Dec 6 (UNI) Chattisgarh has emerged as a major centre of Naxal activities in the country with as many as 374 civilians and police personnel being killed in the state this year while only 60 Naxalites have been gunned down and 264 of them were apprehended.

Jharkhand remained the second biggest centre of naxal violence with 101 people and police personnel killed in such incidents while 18 Naxalites were killed and 232 of them arrested till November 30, according to the Home Ministry.

In Andhra Pradesh, naxals killed 46 civilians and police personnel while the police achieved a major success in the state by killing a maximum of 120 Naxalites and arresting 300 of them.

Bihar, which has emerged a major centre of naxal violence recently, witnessed killing of 42 civilians and police personnel while only five Naxalites were killed in the state and 204 were arrested.

Sixteen civilians and policemen were killed in West Benal by naxals this year while in Orissa eight people were killed by them.

Orissa police killed 12 naxals and arrested 29 of them this year.

In 2005, naxal violence was reported from 509 police stations in eleven States. However, 76 districts in nine States affected by the Naxalite menace are covered under SRE scheme. These inlcude 16 districts each of Andhra Pradesh and Jharkhand, fourteen districts of Bihar, Nine districts of Orissa, eight of Chhattisgarh, four of Maharashtra, and three each of Mdhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.

Meanwhile, the Government has been pursuing a multi-pronged approach to combat the naxal problem which, inter-alia, includes focussed attention on integrated socio-economic development in the Naxal affected areas. Besides, funds are provided under various Centrally Sponsored Schemes(CSS) to the States for socio-economic development.

Expressing concern over the low level of utilization of funds of Rs 2475 crore allocated under the Backward Districts Initiative in some States, the centre has asked them to improve it. The Central Government, which regularly monitors the progress of utilization of funds, has asked them to improve delivery mechanisms to speed up the pace of development and ensure full utilization of the assistance being provided by it.

Funds under BDI component of the Rashtriya Sam Vikas Yojana (RSVY) has been sanctioned to fill in the critical gaps and physical infrastructure in the naxal affected districts. It is released to the State Governments and monitoring of implementation of the scheme is done at the district and State levels. However, the Planning Commission has also entrusted the work relating to monitoring of BDI scheme to NABARD.

UNI AJ MIR KP1638