Rajnath Singh seeks roadmap for strengthening internal security

NEW DELHI: Rajnath Singh is looking at a new strategy to deal with the Naxals, and the home minister’s plan includes integrating all government efforts under one umbrella to ensure acohesive movement against the left-wing extremists.

Singh, who may now head an empowered committee to look at all Naxal-related issues, has read the riot act to home ministry bureaucrats for the way the situation had so far been handled and asked them to devise a new plan by which there is a "nodal point where all government efforts against the Naxals converge", a senior official said.

The previous government had devised a two-pronged strategy – security measures and development–to counter the Naxals. In fact, the Congress-led UPA had cited the decline in Naxal violence – it was the lowest in a decade in 2013 – as a testimony to the success of this strategy. "Development requires a good security environment," Singh told the chiefs of all intelligence and security organisations at a meeting Monday.

According to Singh, the efforts against Naxals are spread over various ministries, leading to a lack of coordination among various government wings as well as with states, sources said.

For instance, the Integrated Action Plan, a key development programme, is handled by the Planning Commission, while the Ministry of Road Transport manages construction of roads in the Naxal areas and the telecom ministry handles setting up of new mobile towers. An empowered committee under the home minister may soon look at all such programmes, as well as education and security, in places where leftwing extremism is a major issue. "Singh has clearly asked, ‘how can we integrate everything under one umbrella – be it security, development, empowerment, perception management or conflict resolution," a senior official told ET.