Raman Singh seeks funds from PM for infrastructural work in Maoist areas - India News and Travel Times Provides India-centric and other News and Features

Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh on Saturday called on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and urged to provide funds for infrastructural development in Maoist affected areas. After meeting, Raman Singh told reporters they discussed anti-Maoist operations and that he had urged the premier to provide funds to tackle the Naxal issue. "In relation to the Chhattisgarh anti-Maoist operation, the prime minister said that work was going in the right direction. We requested from him that in all the Maoist areas and in the areas affected by left-wing extremism, infrastructure development should begin, as it would resolve our future problems. We have forces at present, we are moving forward with paramilitary forces, so both things should run in parallel to each other. So, we said that if we got the funds, they might be used for the construction of national highway or district highways or schools," he said. On Thursday, Raman Singh had called on Union Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram to discuss the security situation in the state, besides seeking additional paramilitary forces to deal with Maoists. Maoist rebels, who have a heavy presence in Chhattisgarh, say they are fighting for the rights of poor and marginal farmers for landless labourers. They are expanding their influence in the rural areas of east, central and southern India. The rebels have ignored repeated calls to renounce violence and negotiate and have stepped up their attacks in recent months, prompting the government to go after them in a concerted strike. The Maoists are armed with sophisticated weapons and ammunition, assault rifles and even communications tools. Thousands have been killed in the Maoist insurgency, which began in the late 1960s. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has already described the Naxalism as the gravest home-grown threats to India's internal security. The Centre put ban on the prominent Maoist group, the Communist Party of India (Maoist) in June, saying they were propagating violence.