Orissa CM meets relatives of Maoist attack victims

Malkangiri (Orissa), July 21 : Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik visitedalkangiri District on Sunday to console survivors and relatives of dead victims of a Maoist attack. At least 24 policemen died in a landmine blast.

Patnaik handed over a cheque of 400,000 rupees to the net of kin of the dead.

"We will definitely examine your demands after discussing them with Chief Secretary, DG (director general of police), Home (Interior) Secretary and other senior officers in the Bhubaneshwar Secretariat and do whatever we can. We will ask the relatives, families, parents, widows and children of those who sacrificed their lives what can be done for them," he said.

Relatives of the victims broke down as Patnaik offered condolences to them.

"I demand that arrangement should be made for my children and my old parents. I should be given a job. I am ready to work in any department," said Binodini Maharana, wife of a victim.

On Thursday, the Home Ministry sought a report from the Orissa Government about the incident.

On June 29, 33 cops died when Maoists attacked their boat in Malkangiri district.

Sixty-six people including 63 policemen were on the boat, which had sunk into the reservoir after a Maoist attack in. Out of them 28 survived.

Also known as Naxalites, they say they are fighting on behalf of the rural poor and landless and want to build a communist state.

The government has recently taken a new stance on the Maoist insurgency, pulling the affected states together to coordinate their response. It says it will combine improved policing with socio-economic measures to defuse grievances that fuel the Maoist cause.

ANI