The Andhra Pradesh government will focus on developing interior and remote areas as a lasting solution to the naxalite menace.
Inaugurating a two-day conference of district collectors in Hyderabad on Friday, Chief Minister Dr Y S Rajasekhar Reddy said 15 districts in the state were extremist-affected and the government had planned to expedite the developmental activities in the interior and remote areas in these districts.
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He admitted that certain areas of the state had not developed due to inaccessibility and other socio-economic factors.The human development indices of these areas were comparatively low. As a result, left-wing extremism had found its way to these areas.
He said the government had identified 278 mandals (clusters of villages) in 15 districts as remote and interior areas. These mandals are spread over all the three regions of Telangana, Rayalaseema and coastal Andhra.
The government had appointed 15 senior officers as supervisory officers for the Remote and Interior Areas Development Programme, who would guide the collectors in preparing the action plan, supervise monitoring and implementation of the plan and take up field visits. Already, teams of officials had visited remote villages that had been identified and listed out problems of each habitation, and sorted out some issues.
The chief minister asked the district collectors to take action under three major categories-- land, infrastructure and employment. He told them to identify job opportunities for youth in remote areas, train them and provide placement.
He said collectors had made efforts to impart training to youth to prepare them for recruitment in the army and other security services.
Of the 5,206 youth trained so far, 1,174 had already been provided employment in the army, air force and the Border Security Force. They had also been employed as home guards, forest guards and private security guards.
Reddy said the government had constituted a separate department called the Remote and Interior Areas Development department headed by the principal secretary.
Since land issues dominated the first round of peace talks with the Communist Party of India-Maoist and Communist Party of India-Marxist Leninist Janashakti in October last year, the government has appointed a land commission to identify government and surplus lands in the state for distribution to the landless poor.