Nagpur: As Union Home Minister P Chidambaram
reviewed security operations in Maoist stronghold of
Gadchiroli district in Maharashtra, a state bureaucrat courted
controversy alleging that such "high profile" visits would not
yield any "results" or solve Naxal problem.
Gadchiroli`s Additional District Collector Rajendra
Kanpadhe also flayed the Centre`s anti-Naxal strategies and
said the state police should decide whether or not
paramilitary forces are required to deal with Maoist menace.
"Such high-profile visits will not yield any results
or solve the Naxal problem. If you hold a meeting in
air-conditioned room and visit the Naxal-affected areas in
choppers, how do you know the ground realities," he told
reporters in Gadchiroli, about 200 km from here. Kanpadhe, who
is the deputy collector, is also holding charge of additional
collector. He is from Maharashtra Administrataive Service.
Chidambaram, who is the first Union Home Minister to
visit Gadchiroli, where Central paramilitary forces have been
deployed to counter the naxal threat, flew in to review the
anti-Naxal operations in the district and to assess the
preparedness of security forces deployed there.
57-year-old Kanpadhe, who is known in official circles
for his stinging criticism of anti-Naxal strategies and
anti-government stance, said, "Paramilitary forces should
immediately be removed and if necessary they should be called
only after local police requires their help.
The state police should be strengthened, given more
facilities and more authority. Bringing paramilitary forces
will not help them. The local police should decide whether
paramilitary forces are required or not."
Kanpadhe shot into limelight when he volunteered to go
into the Naxal infested Binagonda in Bhamragarh taluka in the
district without security and came back unscathed a few months
back. There was a security scare when he remained untraceable
for a day. He was denied security on grounds of shortage of
police personnel.
Chidambaram held a closed-door meeting with high
ranking officials in Gadchiroli to assess the preparedness of
the security forces in tackling the Naxal menace.
He arrived in the Maoist-infested district at around 1000
hours and held a meeting with Maharashtra Home Minister R R
Patil, Minister of State for Home, Pratik Patil and State
Director General of Police D Sivanandan along with other
senior officers from revenue and police department.
Meanwhile, a section of the people`s representatives
were sore when they were not allowed to attend the official
meeting.
Chidambaram, however, spoke to them individually and
later accepted their memorandum . The minister did not speak
to the media and there was no official briefing after the
meeting.
Chidambaram then flew to Murumgaon, a remote village in
Dhanora taluka in Gadchiroli.
-PTI
