Home Minister holds meeting to discuss naxalism

New Delhi, Aug 1 (UNI) Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil today held a high level meeting to discuss naxal situation as a prelude to the National Security Council meeting tomorrow focussing on the spread of menace in the country.

The meeting was attended by Minister of State for Home Sriprakash Jaiswal and senior officials of the Ministry.

The minister took stock of the naxal activities in various parts of the country.

The meet likely to be chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, will also be attended by the top officials of the Home Ministry and intelligence agencies.

Naxalism, which has been described as the single biggest security threat to the country by the Prime Minister earlier, has recently spread to states like Punjab and Haryana. However, Chhatisgarh remained the epicentre of the naxal violence in the country.

The Centre had earlier this year sensitised states about the presence of naxalites in their areas and has been sharing intelligence inputs in this regard.

A five-tier structure is there to deal with naxal problem which included the Empowered Group of Ministers headed by the Home Minister, a standing Committee of Chief Ministers of Naxal-affected states and the Coordination Centre headed by Union Home Secretary which has Chief Secretaries and DGPs of 13 states as members.

A Task Force headed by Special Secretary (Internal Security) in the Union Home Ministry and an Inter-Ministerial Group headed by Additional Secretary (Naxal Management) in the ministry are also involved with tackling the menace of naxalism in the country.

UNI