Chief Minister Raman Singh on Thursday said the 75 per cent of the insurgency affected areas had been freed from Maoist influence during the past 12 years in Chhattisgarh.
The remaining Maoist influenced regions would be freed in the next couple of years, he said.
The Chief Minister said that guns are not the answer to insurgency problem. Efforts are bearing fruit to end insurgency due to the rapid socio-economic development of the affected districts.
Efforts are also underway on a war-footing on providing Internet facility at the Panchayat level with Broadband connectivity in the State, Singh said.
He was talking to newly-appointed officers of the Indian Information Service (IIS) at his official residence here. The officers are currently on a study tour of Chhattisgarh.
Singh while referring to the Balrampur-Ramanujganj district said that all the 340 Gram Panchayats of the district have internet connectivity. The project was completed two-and-a-half-months ago.
The objective to get internet connectivity at Panchayat level is to enable the Chief Minister and Panchayat Minister have video-conferencing directly with the 10,000 Sarpanchs and Panchs from the State capital itself, officials informed.
The Chief Minister said that the Public Distribution System (PDS) is totally computerised in the State.
He further explained various social welfare schemes of the authorities. Under the Food Security Act, about 60 lakh families under the Below Poverty line (BPl) had been empowered with Right to Food.
Singh while referring to the insurgency issue added that police and Central security forces are fighting the toughest battle in the world.
He also explained in detail regarding the Education City at village Jawanga in Dantewada district of Bastar.
Kushabhau Thakre Journalism and Mass Communication University Raipur Vice-Chancellor Professor Mansingh Parmar, Public Relations Department Secretary Santosh Misra and Public Relations Director Rajesh Sukumar Toppo were also present.
It may be recalled that the Tribal Battalion of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) will be raised by recruiting 744 Scheduled Tribe (ST) youths from four insurgency infested districts of Bastar in Chhattisgarh, the Central Government has informed.
The districts from where the tribal youths would be recruited for the new Battalion are — Bijapur, Dantewada, Narayanpur and Sukma.
The decision to set up a Tribal Battalion has been taken with a view to give more employment to the tribal youth keeping in mind their unique characteristics.
There is no rationale for opposition to the setting up of the Tribal Battalion as recruitment of tribals from Bastar region in CRPF will help addressing unemployment and inequality, and also wean away youth from left Wing Extremism (lWE), it stated.
Earlier, the Union Cabinet under the Chairmanship of Prime Minister Narendra Modi had also approved raising of four ‘India Reserve Battalions’ (IR Bns) for Chhattisgarh State to be deployed in lWE pockets of the State.
The Union Cabinet had announced to raise a total of 17 India Reserve Battalions (IR Bns) for Jammu & Kashmir and left Wing Extremism (lWE) affected States, officials stated.
It includes five IR Bns in the State of J&K, three IR Bns in Jharkhand, three IR Bns in Odisha and two IR Bns in Maharashtra including four for Chhattisgarh.
A total of 106 districts in the country are considered as left Wing Extremism (lWE) affected. Of these, Bihar State has maximum 22 districts, followed by Jharkhand (21), Odisha(19), Chhattisgarh (16), Andhra Pradesh and Telangana,- both 8 each, West Bengal and Maharashtra,- both 4 each, Uttar Pradesh,- 3 and Madhya Pradesh, one.
Apart from the above, it is worth mentioning that the numbers of incidents of lWE violence and resultant deaths have although significantly declined during the last four years from 2011 to 2014, officials stated.
Maoist activities decreased in all the States except Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh with number of incidents rising to 42 per cent, observes the annual report of the Union Ministry of Home for 2015-16.
The report mentioned that the rise in incidents had been due to conduct of Panchayat polls in January-February month in 2015-16 in Chhattisgarh’s Bastar region.
It further mentioned that the Dandakarnya region in South Chhattisgarh had been the nucleus of Maoist activities.
The Central Government in June this year decided to also upgrade the government multi-specialty hospital at Jagdalpur in Bastar district of Chhattisgarh.