Ready for talks with Maoists

Shun violence and join mainstream: Rajnath

Koraput: Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Friday said the Centre is ready to hold talks with Maoists if they shun violence unconditionally. The Home Minister, who held a two-hour long meeting to review anti-Maoist operations with top officials of the state police headed by DDGP K B Singh and Odisha Home Secretary Asit Tripathy, BSF and CRPF on Maoists activities in Koraput and Malkangiri districts on Friday, said, “I want to appeal to them (Maoists) to shun the path of violence and join the mainstream ... Government is ready to hold talks with them if they give up violence without any condition. Violence has no place in a democratic set up,” he said.

The NDA government, he said, has launched a host of welfare and development schemes and Maoists should give up arms and avail the benefits of these programmes. Defending police action in Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh, where some Maoists were killed, the Union minister said security forces are often compelled to retaliate in self-defence and in the process Maoists are killed.

The visit of the Union Home Minister to Odisha was significant in view of Left-wing extremism in neighbouring states Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh, and Andhra Odisha Border area. At least eight battalions of BSF, two battalions of CRPF and one battalion of Cobra forces have been deployed in Koraput district.

Commending the role of Odisha government, the state police, administration and also the paramilitary forces in anti-Maoist operations, Singh congratulated officials too. "They are performing very well," he said. The Home Minister later met Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik at the state secretariat in the afternoon and both the leaders discussed various issues, including the combined anti-Maoist operations. Rajnath Singh said the Centre would provide every possible support to Odisha for the improvement of socio-economic conditions of the people in the backward districts of the state.