MP claims Centre ignoring Naxal problem in many districts

MORENA: Claiming that Madhya Pradesh has not got adequate support for fighting the Naxal menace, state Home Minister UmaShankar Gupta today said despite having evidence of such activities in nine districts of the state, the Centre considers only Balaghat as hit by Left Wing Extremism (LWE).

"We have evidence of Naxal-movement in nine districts of the state, but the Centre considers only Balaghat as naxalite affected district and is not ready to consider remaining eight others," the Home Minister told reporters.

He said the other state districts where Naxal movement was noticed are Sidhi, Singrauli, Rewa, Shahdol, Umaria, Anuppur, Mandla and Dindori.

The state submitted evidence of Naxal movement in these eight districts to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during a meeting with the chief ministers on the Naxal issue, but the Centre is not providing resources to fight the LWE as per the prescribed guidelines, Gupta said.

The state government is controlling Naxal activities in these districts on its own, he said.

To a question, Gupta said earlier the Centre used to provide Rs 100 crore every year for modernisation of police force but now the budget is reduced to just Rs 26 crore because of which the state government is finding it difficult to manage resources for police force.

Referring to reports of crime rate increasing in MP, he said that more crimes were being reported as unlike in other states, in Madhya Pradesh police entertains complaints of the victims and also register cases promptly.