Tackling Maoists primary responsibility of state: Jairam Ramesh

KOLKATA: Asserting that the responsibility of tackling Maoists lay primarily with police and state intelligence agencies, union minister Jairam Ramesh today appealed to NDA-ruled states to cooperate with the Centre for dealing with the problem.

"Until and unless the police of Chhattisgarh, Orissa and Jharkhand come forward and take the primary responsibility (to end Maoist menace), we won't achieve success," Ramesh told reporters here.

He said there was success in tackling the Maoist problem in Andhra Pradesh because the state police took the primary responsibility in dealing with it.

"The central forces can only assist them but the primary responsibility lies with the state police and intelligence agencies," he said.

Asked whether the Centre would intervene in tackling the Maoist problem in Chhattisgarh, he replied, "Intervention is a wrong word. The Centre never intervenes, it works in coordination and in tandem with the state government."

Ramesh's comment comes a week after the brutal massacre of Congress leaders by Maoists in Chhattisgarh.

27 people, including Congress leaders Mahendra Karma, Chhattisgarh state unit president Nand Kumar Patel and ex-MLA Uday Mudliyar, were killed in the Naxal ambush on the party's 'parivartan yatra' at Darbha in Bastar district on May 25.

On plans by the Centre to deal with the problem, Ramesh said, "There has been no big change in our strategy...Policing and the security mechanism should be increased, there should be active political activity, a sympathetic approach towards tribal development besides justice for displaced adivasis."

Ramesh said there was no place for liberated zones declared by Maoists.

"In south Chhattisgarh, huge areas have been announced as Maoist liberated zones. No government can accept such liberated zones and strong security measures will be taken," he said.