Rajnath Singh asks Maoists to give up arms, avail benefits

Union home minister Rajnath Singh on Friday appealed to the Maoists to give up arms and join the mainstream, during his day-long visit to Orissa.

Mr Singh arrived at the district headquarters town here on a one-day visit to the state to review the left wing extremism (LWE) situation in Koraput and Malkangiri. “I appeal to the Maoists to shun violence and join mainstream. The government is ready to hold talks and they should avail the benefits of developmental schemes launched by the Modi government,” Rajnath Singh told reporters here after the review meeting.

The Union home minister arrived here in the morning from Visakhapatnam to assess the anti-Maoist operations underway in the state where top officials of the state police, Border Security Force (BSF), Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and district administration participated in it.

State home secretary Asit Tripathy, director-general of BSF K.K. Sharma, CRPF director-general K. Durga Prasad, Orissa director- general of police DGP K.B. Singh, state inspector general (IG/Operations) Soumendra Priyadarshi, director intelligence Sunil Roy, additional director-general of police, Orissa Human Rights Protection Cell Manoj Chhabria, Koraput district collector Jaya Kumar V. and Malkangiri district collector Prashant Kumar Reddy were present in the meeting.

The Maoist menace in neighbouring Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and the Andhra-Orissa Border (AOB) area has become a cause of concern as it is apprehended that the members of the outlawed groups may sneak into Orissa.

Mr Singh also met chief minister Naveen Patnaik at state secretariat. At least eight battalions of BSF, two battalions of CRPF and one battalion of Cobra forces have been deployed in Koraput district.

Later, Mr Singh met Orissa chief minister Naveen Patnaik at state secretariat in the afternoon and both the leaders discussed about various issues, including the combined anti-Maoist operations.

After his meeting with the chief minister, Mr Singh told reporters that the Centre would provide every possible support toOrissa for improvement of the socio-economic conditions of the people in backward districts of the state.