Chhattisgarh is among five insurgency infested States which have been working feverishly towards meeting all the project deadlines prescribed by the Centre for left Wing Extremism (lWE) affected districts.
The Centre has asked these States for adhering to the time-lines for appropriate utilisation of budget available with them for developing infrastructure in the lWE districts.
A meeting was held in the Union Ministry of Home Affairs under chairmanship of Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Haribhai Parathibhai Chaudhary to review lWE in Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Jharkhand and Bihar in New Delhi recently.
During the meeting, apart from operational issues certain developmental issues such as roads, mobile towers and infrastructure in Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) centres were reviewed.
Chaudhary had urged the Directors General of CAPFs to adhere to the time-lines for appropriate utilisation of budget available with them. The issues of coordination between the State Police and CAPFs were also discussed and better and enhanced cooperation on the ground was emphasised.
The meeting was attended by Rajiv Mehrishi, Union Home Secretary, DGs of CAPFs, DGs of State Police and Principal Secretaries (Home) from the concerned States and Senior Officers of the MHA.
It may also be recalled that the Central Government announced in the month of March this year that it has approved a revised cost of Rs 3045 crore under its Road Requirement Plan for improvement of road connectivity in lWE-affected areas.
Overall, the Centre has approved a RRP for improvement of road connectivity in lWE-affected areas of a total of 34 Districts in 8 States covering 5477 km length (1126 km NHs & 4351 km State Roads).
In Chhattisgarh, the fund had been approved for improvement of road connectivity in lWE-affected areas measuring 2019 kms .
As per details of Physical Progress achieved as on March 1, 2015 under RRP the length of road completed between 2010-11 to 2014-15 in the insurgency infested areas in Chhattisgarh upto February 28,2015 is 868 kms.
As per the State-wise details of fund allocated and expenditure incurred under lWE scheme, Chhattisgarh, an expenditure of Rs 190 crore was made from 2010-11 to 2014-15 upto February 28, 2015.
last year, the Central Government had simplified the procedure for offering general approval under Section-2 of Central Forest Conservation Act 1980, keeping in view the need of infrastructural development for public utility.
This implied that general approval for construction of roads on forest land in a total of ten lWE-affected districts of State will now be granted easily.
As per the simplified procedure, the general approval for construction of two-lane highways on forest land will be given by State Government itself.
In this context, Chief Secretary Vivek Dhand had issued a circular to Additional Chief Secretaries, Principal Secretaries and Secretaries of all the departments and also to the Divisional Commissioners and District Collectors.