PM for integrated development in Naxal-hit districts

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday stressed the need for integrated development to counter the menace of Naxalism. ?The development has to be meaningful, it has to integrated and it should be for the people,? Singh said addressing a national workshop attended by 60 collectors from the Naxal-hit districts.

He also said lack of development often leads to sense of alienation. ?Our programmes and policies must ensure that people of these (Naxal affected) areas have equitable share,? he said.

Indicating that the integrated action plan for Naxal-hit districts aimed at developing infrastructure, Singh said, ?India has to find practical, pragmatic ways to get to people in these areas.? He said corruption was the main hindrance in development programmes.

?To be persuasive we must be believable, to be believable we must be credible, to be credible we must be truthful. As administrators we must have zero tolerance towards corruption. Development programmes have to be delivered with complete honesty,? said Singh.

In their addresses at the meet, both home minister P Chidambaram and rural development minister Jairam Ramesh said the government would continue with the Integrated Action Plan (IAP) for the extremism affected districts. ?We are trying to add another 20 districts. The Planning Commission has given approval for 18 districts. This brings the total number of districts under IAP to 78,? said Chidambaram.

An IAP for 60 selected tribal and backward districts in 9 states was approved in November, 2010 with a block grant of Rs 25 crore and Rs 30 crore per district during last and current fiscal. This grant was placed at the disposal of the committee headed by the district collector.

Ramesh noted there is unanimous view among all the district collectors and state governments that IAP should continue in the 12th five-year-plan too. ?…it will continue. No doubt,? the minister said and added that ?it should be the block, not the district that should be the unit.?

?There is unanimous view among all the district collectors and state governments that I have interacted with that the district should not be model for the intermediate model. But we should actually be talking about blocks,? he said.

Collectors of the Naxal-hit districts of Orissa, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal attended the workshop.