Chhattisgarh would be among seven left Wing Extremism (lWE) affected States, whose core development issues in the insurgency-hit areas will come under close review in a high-level meeting to be held in New Delhi on Friday, officials informed.
The meeting would be chaired by Union Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi with the Secretaries of the Central Ministries on key development issues of the left Wing Extremism (lWE) affected States.
The Chief Secretaries of 7 lWE affected States i.e. Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Telangana and Maharashtra will also attend the meeting. The Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh will take the review meeting on a later date, it was informed.
The Ministries/Departments participating in the meeting also include Department of Telecom, M/o Road Transport & Highways, Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Department of School Education & literacy, Department of Financial Services, Department of Posts, Ministry of Railways and Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.
Notably, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs has adopted a multi pronged strategy which inter alia includes security related interventions, development measures, ensuring rights and entitlement of local communities etc. Special projects such as construction of roads, installation of mobile towers and construction of Fortified Police Stations etc. have been sanctioned by the Central Government. The development works are implemented through the States and relate to various schemes/programmes of the development ministries of the Central Government.
Notably, Maoist activities decreased in all the States except Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh with number of incidents rising to 42 per cent, observed 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 has allocated two India Reserve (IR) battalions for Chhattisgarh and has two coys of Engineering component to assist the battalions in creation of infrastructure such as roads , barracks and police stations.
The Government had been implementing various developmental schemes through its different Ministries/Departments for creating infrastructure in the lWE affected regions of the country, including Chhattisgarh. Some of such schemes are Road Requirement Plan-I (RRP-I), Construction of fortified Police Stations, Mobile Towers and Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) etc., the report informed.
The Road Requirement Plan-I (RRP-I scheme is being implemented by the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways for improving road connectivity in 34 most lWE affected districts. This scheme envisages 5,422 Km road lengths.
The left Wing Extremists often oppose any development activities in the areas of their influence and try to obstruct the implementation of the schemes, officials stated.
Consequently, some projects are delayed beyond their scheduled time. However, as and when such incidents come into the notice of the Government, adequate security is provided by deployment of Security Forces.
Besides, the Central Government has provided various relaxations for taking up the works in lWE affected areas ensuring early and timely completion of the projects. These relaxations include accepting of tenders up to 10 per cent higher of the updated cost, splitting the works in smaller parts, awarding of works on nomination basis, separate Schedule of Rates (SoR), extended completion period and general exemption upto 5 hectare forest land under the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980.
While taking it as a challenge, the Chhattisgarh Government has completed construction of 1052 kms of roads in insurgency infested pockets of the State with co-operation of the Central Government, State PWD Minister Rajesh Munat said recently.
In an official statement issued here, Munat said that the police provided adequate security cover to road development projects in the red zones.
Notably, a total of 16 districts of Chhattisgarh remain insurgency-infested out of the 106 districts in 10 States, as identified by the Central Government as ‘lWE affected districts’ in the country, according to the latest Central Government data.
The districts are – Bastar, Bijapur, Dantewada, Jashpur, Kanker, Koriya (Baikunthpur ), Narayanpur , Rajnandgaon, Surguja, Dhamtari, Mahasamund ,Gariaband, Balod, Sukma, Kondagaon and Balrampur.
Chhattisgarh is also among the seven worst left Wing Extremism (lWE) States which been allocated Rs 228.56 crore as Additional Central Assistance (ACA) by Union Ministry of Home Affairs.
Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh had earlier approved the State-wise allocation of Additional Central Assistance of Rs 1000 crores to 35 worst lWE affected districts in seven states .
The Union Ministry of Home Affairs has allocated fund Rs 28.57 crores per district. Thus, Jharkhand is allocated Rs 457.12 crore, Chhattisgarh Rs 228.56 crore, Bihar Rs 171.42 crore, Odisha Rs 57.14 crore and Rs 28.57 crore each to the States of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
In an attempt to boost developmental works in insurgency-hit districts, the Chhattisgarh Government has decided to fix 3 per cent amount of cost of construction works funded by the Centre as ‘protection component’.