PC meets collectors of 60 Naxal-hit areas
In the backdrop of the abduction of the collector of Maoist-hit Malkangiri, home minister P. Chidambaram on Friday interacted with collectors of nearly 60 Naxal-affected districts and asked them to contact him if they face any problem in executing development plans.
The home minister’s appeal is significant as it came two days after the kidnapping of the collector of Orissa’s Malkangiri district R.V. Krishna and believed to be aimed at giving confidence to the collectors working in hostile environment. Mr Krishna was also supposed to participate in the meeting with the home minister through video conferencing as Malkangiri has also been included under the IAP.
During his one-and-half hour interactions with the collectors through video conferencing, the home minister also impressed upon the collectors that spending of the funds should be reflected on the ground and the projects could be anything like construction of roads, bridges, school buildings, community halls or Aanganwadi works but the fund should not spill over to the next financial year as the second instalment of the plan would come then. Taking stock of the implementation of Integrated Action Plan (IAP), which was specially desi-gned by the Centre for the Maoist-hit districts, sources said that Mr Chidambaram asked the collectors to carry out as much development projects as possible and spend the first instalment of `25 crore given to each district within current fiscal.
Mr Chidambaram told the collectors to involve themselves in works of the IAP for their speedy and diligent implementation and asked them to contact him directly if they face any kind of problem, sources said.
In November 2010, the government had approved the IAP for its implementation in 60 districts, with the aim of giving a fillip to development schemes in tribal and backward regions, mostly affected by Naxal violence.
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