Strengthening Security in Naxal Affected Areas

                                                          Saumitra Mohan                 

With none other than the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh himself admitting Naxalite insurgency to be the country’s deadliest internal threat to          security, security in Naxal affected areas has always been a challenge to             reckon with. However, some intelligent thinking in recent times            has      effectively put paid to any plans of the Naxalites. The Naxals are            literally           on backfoot and desperately looking for means to resuscitate and     rediscover themselves. The Government of India and Governments of             various states have efficiently and effectively coordinated their action to        ensure a bigger bang for the buck. This has resulted in drastic decline in    Naxal related violence across the country though they have definitely        tried to have their presence felt through sporadic violence in certain pockets.

However, 'Police' and 'Public Order' being State subjects, action on maintenance of law and order lies primarily in the domain of the State Governments. The Central Government closely monitors the situation and supplements and coordinates their efforts in several ways. These include providing Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) and Commando Battalions for Resolute Action (CoBRA) and sanctioning India Reserve (IR) battalions for reinforcing the policing efforts by the affected State Governments.

The setting up of sundry Counter Insurgency and Anti Terrorism (CIAT) schools along withmodernization and upgradation of the State Police and their intelligence apparatus under the scheme for ‘Modernization of State Police Forces’ (MPF) have yielded rich dividends. Initiatives like re-imbursement of security related expenditure under the ‘Security Related Expenditure’ (SRE) Scheme, filling up critical infrastructure gaps under the ‘Scheme for Special Infrastructure in Left Wing Extremism (LWE) affected States’, providing helicopters for anti-naxal operations and assistance in training of State Police through the Ministry of Defence, the Central Police Organizations and the Bureau of Police Research and Development have also supplemented the state efforts in countering LWE activities.

Besides, the sharing of intelligence, facilitating inter-State coordination; assistance in community policing and civic action programmes etc have also been other measures taken at the level of the Union Government in curbing the Naxalite threat to our security. The underlying philosophy is to enhance the capacity of the State Governments to tackle the Maoist menace in a concerted manner. A dedicated Division in the Union Ministry of Home Affairs also monitors the implementation of Integrated Action Plan (IAP) for LWE Districts and various other development and infrastructure initiatives of the Government of India. The philosophy behind the focus on development in Naxal affected areas is the belief in development being the best way to counter the disaffection against the Indian State as perceived in the rise of Maoist menace.

Among the various flagship schemes taken up at the level of the Union Government, the SRE scheme has proved to be very effective by providing funds for meeting the recurring expenditure relating to insurance, for the training and operational needs of the security forces, for the rehabilitation of LWE cadres who surrender in accordance with the surrender and rehabilitation policy of the State Government concerned, for community policing and publicity materials, not to speak of beefing up the security related infrastructures for village defense committees.Under the said SRE scheme, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs reimburses security-related expenditure in respect of above- specified items to the 83 districts in the concerned nine states State Governments for dealing with the Naxalite activities. They inter alia include 16 districts in Andhra Pradesh, 14 in Bihar, 16 in Jharkhand, nine in Odisha and eight in Chhattisgarh.

Yet another scheme namely the ‘Scheme of Special Infrastructure (SSI)’ for the LWE affected States was approved in the Eleventh Five Year Plan, with an allocation of Rs. 500 crore to cater to security-related critical infrastructure gaps, which cannot be covered under the extant schemes. These relate to requirements of mobility for the police and security forces by upgrading existing roads/tracks in inaccessible areas, for providing secure camping grounds and helipads at strategic locations in remote and interior areas, for undertaking measures to enhance security in respect of police stations/outposts located in vulnerable areas. Under the ‘Scheme of Fortified Police Stations (SFPS)’, the Union Home Ministry has already sanctioned 400 new police stations in nine LWE affected states at a unit cost of Rs. two crores per police station.

Besides the above hard initiatives, some soft initiatives including the Central Scheme for assistance to civilian victims/family of victims of terrorist, communal and Naxal violence and the Civic Action Programme (CAP) have also been started. The former broadly aimsat assistingthe families of victims of terrorist, communal and Naxal violence. An amount of Rs. three lakh is given to the affected family under the scheme. The assistance given under this scheme is in addition to the ex-gratia payment of Rs. one lakh paid under the SRE scheme. The funds under the latter scheme are sanctioned to CAPFs to undertake civic action in the affected states. This is a successful scheme, which aims to build bridges between the local population and the security forces.

Another Central scheme called the ‘Road Requirement Plan (RRP)’ has been functional since February 2009 for improvement of road connectivity in the most LWE affected districts in the eight States viz. Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa and Uttar Pradesh. The RRP envisages development of National Highways and State Roads by the Ministry of Home Affairs based on the priority indicated by the State Governments. The scheme is undertaken in cooperation and coordination with the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways (MORTH).

The Planning Commission steered ‘Integrated Action Plan (IAP)’ for 83 selected tribal and backward districts for accelerated development is already making positive inroads into the Naxal affected areas. The aim of this initiative is to provide public infrastructure and services in all the affected/contiguous districts. One just hopes that as a. result of the above soft and hard initiatives undertaken by the Governments at the both the levels, the Naxal menace shall soon recede to the background, winning over some of the misguided and disaffected citizens of our country.