Centre to revive IAP in tribal and Maoist dominated areas: Rajnath

19 February, Bhubaneswar

The Centre is reviving the Integrated Action Plan (IAP) for the development of the tribal dominated and Naxal dominated areas in the country, Union Minister for Home Rajnath Singh said here Friday.

The IAP is one of the eight central schemes scrapped by the central government last year Singh who reviewed the Left Wing Extremist situation in Odisha with Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik at the state secretariat here later told media persons that there was a lot of progressive improvement in the security situation in the LWE front in the state.

The Union Home Minister arrived in Koraput from Visakhapatnam in the morning and review the LWE in Koraput and Malkangiri district with the senior officials of the BSF, CRPF and the Odisha Police. Singh said the Union government is ready to hold dialogue with the Moists if they give up arms and shun violence adding that there was no room for violence in a healthy democracy.

The Union Minister appealed to the Maoists to shun violence ,join the mainstream and help in building a prosperous India under the dynamic leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Singh said he had assured Patnaik to provide maximum possible assistance to the state available under the provisions of the central government to counter the Maoist activities.

He said the Centre had launched schemes to provide social security to the poorest of the poor in the country and to empower them economically. Mr Patnaik said mainly three demands were put before the Union Minister by the state during the meeting.

The state government demanded the Union Minister to provide two more battalions of central forces for the Odisha-Chhatisgarh border to combat extremists and provide financial assistance for the Phailin cyclone pending since long and drought assistance announced by the Union government. The central government had announced to provide Rs 815 crore drought assistance from the National Disaster Response fund but was later slashed by more than Rs 200 crore.

Singh said he had talked to the Union Secretary and said the amount announced by the Centre would be provided to the state after the Supplementary budget.

The Chief Minister demanded the Union government to declare the districts of central Odisha through which the Maoist corridor from Jharkhand to Andhra Pradesh passes as Maoist dominated districts. He also demanded funds for the Gurupriya bridge constructed in the Maoist infested Malkangiri district, and improve telecommunication network and banking services in Maoist affeceted areas.