Naxals abducting collectors with development agenda: Government

NEW DELHI: The government today said that district collectors who pursue development agenda are being abducted by Naxals but made it clear it will continue its efforts in Maoist-hit areas despite such setbacks.

"Through a calibrated security and development-oriented approach, the effort in the short-term is to prevent expansion of left wing extremism (LWE) problem to new areas....

"District collectors with a pro-active development agenda are targeted and kidnapped. In the short and medium terms, this challenge has to be met and overcome in worst-affected areas," Minister of State for Home Jitendra Singh told the Rajya Sabha in a written reply.

"....The Integrated Action Plan (for Naxal-hit states) is also a tool to bridge the trust deficit between the government and local communities in these areas," he said.

Singh said, "That, this purpose has been achieved in some measure, even in the worst-affected areas, can be seen by the action of CPI (Maoist) in targeting the district collectors- there was an effort to kill the Collector of Bijapur, Chhattisgarh in a landmine explosion recently and a young and pro-active Collector of Sukma in Chhattisgarh has been kidnapped by them.

"In spite of such setbacks, the government is determined to sustain these development efforts," the Minister said.

32-year-old 2006 batch IAS officer Alex Paul Menon was taken captive on Saturday by Maoists from Majhipara village in Raipur district.

Singh said that 26 districts in various states account for nearly 80 per cent of the total LWE violence.

"The states of Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Bihar and Odisha are considered badly affected by left wing extremism. The states of West Bengal and Maharashtra are considered partially affected. The states of Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh are considered slightly affected states.

"There is substantial improvement in the situation in Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal whereas LWE violence has remained low-key in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh," Singh said.