Naveen Patnaik, K Chandrashekhar Rao skip home ministry’s anti-Maoist meeting

NEW DELHI: Six central ministers turned up for a special anti-Naxal meeting called by home minister Rajnath Singh on Monday but two out of the four chief ministers invited did not turn up and sent officials to represent them.

Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao did not come for the meeting. No official reason was cited by the Home Ministry for their absence. Last month, Patnaik and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Bannerjee had not turned up for a meeting of the Eastern Zonal Council chaired by Rajnath Singh in Patna on January 16.

Monday’s meeting was for focusing on operations and development in the three worst-affected Maoist-afflicted districts Bastar region of Chhattisgarh – Sukma, Dantewada and Bijapur. “We had called the CMs of Odisha, Telangana and Maharashtra since these states abut the three said Chhattisgarh districts and interstate coordination is imperative here,” a senior ministry official said. But only Raman Singh and Devendra Fadnavis, chief ministers of BJP-ruled states, turned up at this meeting that lasted four hours.