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Anti-naxal plan yielding rich dividends in U.P.

"Naxalites are no longer getting cooperation of local people"

Lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh Government's efforts to win over the people living in the naxalite-infested areas of Chandauli, Mirzapur and Sonebhadra districts by launching a series of welfare measures appear to be a success with the naxalites shifting their bases to other States.

Home Department sources here claimed that the naxalites had not been getting cooperation of the local population in the three worst-affected districts and were gradually migrating to other States.

The Government, besides strengthening the police network in the area and equipping the force with modern weapons and gadgets, had also been making efforts to win the people, comprising mostly tribals, by a series of welfare measures.

The welfare measures are key in the eradication of the naxal menace as poverty coupled with lack of basic facilities drive people towards naxalites, the officials said.

Programmes like the Samagra Gramin Vikas Yojna (Integrated Rural Development Schemes) have been a great success with the people, who were now actively cooperating with the police to track down the naxalites, they said.

The Government had also constituted a high-powered panel under the chairmanship of Agriculture Minister Ashok Bajpai for undertaking developmental schemes in the affected areas, they said.

The naxal menace was spread over 680 villages in eight districts of Mau, Chandauli, Mirzapur, Sonebhadra, Ballia, Kushinagar, Deoria and Ghazipur. However, the naxal threat was more acute in Chandauli, Sonebhadra and Mirzapur districts, they said.

The high-powered panel, which met here recently, had adopted the 680 villages under the Samagra Gramin Vikas Yojna for development activities, sources said.

A whopping Rs 114 crores had been spent under the scheme during the last financial year for developing roads, education, health facilities and power, they said.

A provision of Rs 180 crores had been made in the scheme in the current financial year, sources said.

Besides, the Government has also embarked upon a project to take the tribal children on a tour of different parts of the State to make them familiar with it.

As part of the project, a group of 200 students from Sonebhadra district were now on a visit to the religious and historical places in the State.

Home Department officials claimed that the strategy had started yielding results as naxalites were now shifting to Bihar, Chattisgarh, Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh. -- PTI

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