Three-pronged strategy to tackle extremism, terrorism

CM explains steps taken by State to contain Naxalites

New Delhi: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy on Wednesday harked back to the three-pronged strategy to fight the Naxalite menace. Participating in the Chief Ministers Conference on Internal Security, he stated that both left-wing extremism and terrorism pose a threat to internal security and the State is fully geared to face the twin challenges.

The three-pronged strategy was first propounded by Dr M Channa Reddy, when he was Chief Minister in 1989-90 and it paid rich political dividends. First, it is for firm police action to maintain law and order; second, it aims at inclusive development of Naxal-affected areas under the Remote Areas Development Programme (RADP), which was approved by the Planning Commission then; third, it provides a way out for Naxals to give up arms and join the democratic process to spread their ideology through peaceful means.

Kiran Kumar said, "This consistent approach adopted by all governments over a period of time, has yielded good results in our fight against left-wing extremism." Turning to terrorism, Kiran Kumar said the State Government has planned to install about 5,000 CCTVs in vulnerable public places in Hyderabad, as part of Safe City Project, for which financial assistance has been sought from the Centre. Counter-Intelligence Cell and OCTOPUS for dealing with the problem of terror have been put in place, he said. A regional National Security Guard (NSG) hub has been set up in Hyderabad.

The Chief Minister highlighted the problem faced by security agencies in monitoring gmail, yahoomail, nimbus, skype and VoIP channels because of non-cooperation by these agencies. Terrorists are taking advantage of this situation for their anti-national activities. He urged the Centre to take up the issue with the concerned agencies to find a solution. Recently, he pointed out, the government launched State-wide centralised Dial 100 Project for better service delivery to citizens. If this system is supported by a set of dedicated patrol cars with well-trained personnel, quality of service could further be enhanced.

He wanted the Centre to adopt the Andhra Pradesh Emergency Response Management System as a pilot project and to fund the same. On police recruitment, he said after the last meeting on internal security, more than 13,000 police constables and over 2,000 SIs were recruited, as part of filling up of all vacancies at the cutting-edge level. Recruitment of another 5,000 police constables and 2,200 SIs is in progress. Kiran Kumar urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for assistance for Hyderabad City Surveillance Project. The expenditure on Counter-Terrorism measures should be brought under SRE funds, like in the case of left-wing Extremism States, he said.

Venkat Parsa