Fighting Naxals primary job of states, says Chidambaram

New Delhi, Apr 15 (PTI) After the government came under
opposition attack on the handling of Naxal violence, Home
Minister P Chidambaram on Thursday said the state governments
have the primary responsibility to fight the Maoist menace and
the Centre was ready to assist them.
Making a statement in the Rajya Sabha (Upper House of
Indian Parliament) on the Dantewada massacre in which 76
security personnel were killed, Chidambaram said, "the state
governments have the primary responsibility" to regain control
of areas dominated by the Naxals.
The Central government, he said, was ready and willing
to assist the state governments and to coordinate inter-state
operations.
"To counter the menace of Naxalism, we need a strong
head, a stronger heart and enormous staying power. I believe
that the government has all three qualities," he said.
As the security forces were deployed in areas populated
by scheduled tribes, they were facing hindrances, the minister
said.
"Because the security forces are deployed in areas
populated by scheduled tribes, a number of restrictions have
been placed on the operations of the central paramilitary
forces," Chidamabaram said giving details of the Dantewada
incident of April six.
Earlier, both Lok Sabha (Lower House of Indian
Parliament) and Rajya Sabha witnessed frequent adjournments
over the issue as the opposition wanted an immediate
discussion and alleged that the government had taken the
incident in a casual manner.

Apparently rejecting suggestions that the security forces
were not adequately trained, Chidambaram said, "the three
companies (deployed in Dantewada) concerned had undergone
pre-induction training before they were inducted in that
area".
Noting that the goal of Naxalites was to overthrow the
established authority of the government, he said the State has
a legitimate right to deploy its security forces to "resist,
apprehend and, if necessary, neutralise militants who are
determined to strike at the very roots of our nation".
The Home Minister said that the call to the CPI(Maoist)
for talks was made in the hope of getting their sincere
response. "The only condition is that the CPI (Maoist) must
abjure violence", he said.
Recalling his visit to Chhatisgarh soon after the
incident, Chidambaram said the Centre has appointed a one-man
inquiry committee headed by E N Ram Mohan, a retired IPS
officer, which has been asked to submit a report within two
weeks.
"I would submit to the House that we should await the
report of the inquiry committee before reaching any final
conclusions....We should remain calm, hold our nerve and stay
on the courses that we had carefully chosen since October
2009," he said.
The concerted action against the Naxals by the Centre and
the affected states was launched in October last year. PTI AMI
SKT