The Chhattisgarh Government is always ready to hold a dialogue with Maoists under the purview of democracy and constitution, State Home Minister Ramsewak Paikra said on Sunday.
" The Government is ready for talks with any side, including Maoists, to solve the insurgency issue”, he said in a statement issued here.
"The State Government's doors for talks with Maoists are always open; provided that the dialogue must be held under the purview of democracy
and constitution," the Minister stated.
Paikra said : “Chief Minister Raman Singh had already said many a times in the past that the State Government is ready for peace talk with insurgents if they shun violence .”
Moreover, the Chief Minister had also said that the Government was ready to embrace Maoists who want to surrender and join the mainstream, he said.
The State Government has formulated an attractive surrender and rehabilitation policy for Maoists who wish to surrender and lead a peaceful life, he said, adding that surrendered cadres are taking benefits of the policy, Paikra said.
"The Government's policy and intention is clear for a permanent solution of the Maoist problem," he said.
Notably, the statement comes in the wake of media reports that the Supreme Court on Friday had asked the Centre and Chhattisgarh government to initiate peace talks to end insurgency in the State.
Notably, Chhattisgarh stands fourth in the country in terms of the number of districts affected by left Wing Extremism (lWE).
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.
A decision to this effect was taken in a review meeting of the progress of work in left Wing Insurgency (lWE) states chaired by Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh in New Delhi recently, officials informed.
Other issues such as installation of mobile towers in grey areas, increasing the reach of networks of DD and AIR, improvement in programmes, expansion of railway lines, banking & postal services were also discussed in detail.
The officials of concerned Union Ministries and Chief Secretaries of the seven lWE-affected states participated in the meeting.
Addressing the meeting, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh had stated that progress in development works has picked up during the last two years, and extended his congratulations to the states and the concerned central ministries.
He stressed upon the need to build upon this progress further and finish the projects in hand at an even quicker pace, so that the people living in these areas are benefitted and get access to services and facilities at par with other parts of the country.
The Union Home Minister also noted that deaths due to lWE incidents had declined by 42 per cent in the year 2015 as compared to the year 2013.
Progress of different projects was thereafter reviewed and discussed with the Secretaries of the Central Ministries of Railways, Road Transport and Highways, Environment, Forests & Climate Change, Post, Information & Broadcasting, Communication & IT, Finance, Health & Family Welfare and Human Resource Development.
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 in March this year.
In an official statement issued here, Munat said that the police provided adequate security cover to road development projects in the red zones.