Terming naxalism as a serious challenge for the country, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh asked for support from all political parties to tackle the menace.
Speaking at the Congress plenary session, the Prime Minister said “to face the challenge of naxalism we need to rise above partisan politics and the Centre and the states have to work together”.
He said that all possible help was being extended to the state governments to fight naxalism. “We have implemented a plan to help the state governments in strengthening their capabilities. However, naxalism cannot be dealt with security measures only. We cannot overlook that there is a developmental aspect to the problem,” he added.
The Prime Minister pointed out that the government had sanctioned an integrated action plan for 60 districts most affected by Naxal violence to help accelerate developmental activity in these districts. “In naxalite-affected areas we have to ensure that our policies and programmes are guided by principles of social justice and equity and that we are sensitive to the needs of the vulnerable sections of the society, especially our adivasi brothers and sisters,” he added. “While it would be unrealistic to expect immediate success, we are confident that after some time these initiatives will yield results,” he added.
He also pointed out that extremism was being dealt with effectively by the present government.
“We have augmented the central paramilitary forces. The National Security Guard has set up hubs in Chennai, Kolkata, Hyderabad and Mumbai. We have strengthened the Multi-Agency Centre to enable the security agencies to get timely intelligence inputs,” he pointed out.