New Delhi, May 20 (Inditop.com) Three days after Maoists blasted a bus in Chhattisgarh killing 31 people, state Chief Minister Raman Singh Thursday met union Home Minister P. Chidambaram here for talks and later denied any misunderstanding with the central government over fighting the rebels.
After meeting Chidambaram, the chief minister told reporters they held a “detailed and frank meeting”.
“All issues were discussed freely, including the recent incidents of Maoist violence.”
The chief minister said there was no misunderstanding with the central government on the issue of fighting the Maoist violence.
“Talk about soft and hard approaches goes on in a parallel manner, but there are no differences between the central and state governments. We are moving forward,” he said.
Asked about the demand for air support to fight the Maoists, Singh said it would be used for evacuating injured personnel and to provide logistic support to the security personnel. “Security force personnel get injured in the deep forests and it is important to evacuate them quickly.”
This kind of support was being provided in some measure, he said, adding that he saw no scope for disagreement on the issue.
Later, speaking on ‘Maoist-Naxal menace: Challenges and Solutions’ at a function organised by the Forum of Integrated National Security, the chief minister said it was totally wrong to say that Operation Green Hunt to flush out the rebels had been launched to give entry to multi-national corporations in Bastar.
He said all iron ore extraction in Bastar region was being done by the National Mineral Development Corporation, the Steel Authority of India or the Chhattisgarh Mineral Development Corporation. “The extraction is being done only in 0.1 percent area of Bastar,” he said.
Admitting that the state police were inadequately trained in guerrilla warfare, the chief minister said his government had opened training centres to equip the force with requisite skills.
Singh said when he took over, the state police were grossly understaffed and his government had recruited 22,000 police men in the last few years.
Singh said his government was determined to defeat the Maoists. “We will not be cowed down by pain. We will not step back. The fight will continue and we will win it.”
He said that supposed reasons for the birth of the Maoist movement such as exploitation of tribals and poor by the landlords were totally absent in Chhattisgarh.
“They (Maoists) are looters, they are terrorists,” Singh said, adding that the rebels wanted to overthrow the system by seizing control of national assets.
Taking a dig at Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh, who said that Maoists were not terrorists, the chief minister said it was a strange remark. “Are Maoists revolutionaries? If they are not terrorists, what else are they?” he said.
The Maoists last month slaughtered 76 security personnel in a forested stretch of Dantewada.
