With the defence ministry averse to sparing the army to fight Naxals, the Union home ministry will "fend for themselves" and take a fresh look at its strategy to fight Left-wing extremism including reorienting the available paramilitary forces. This was seen as a fall out of Thursday evening's Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) meeting chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, which failed to arrive at a consensus over deployment of Army for fighting Naxals.
The Defence Ministry wanted complete clarity on the issue of unified command and the Army was understood to have placed a suggestion that it should be chaired by the senior-most army officer of the area of operation, a move rejected by the home ministry. A senior government official said the home ministry will have to "fend for themselves" in countering the menace and may even go in for recruitment of ex-servicemen, especially those who were deployed in Sri Lanka during IPKF, for de-mining the areas, as LTTE had trained Maoists in planting of mines.
"There will be no deployment of Army. The focus now is on strengthening the state police forces. The CCS will meet again shortly focusing on the revamped anti-Naxal strategy," the official said.
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