Naxals targetting collectors who pursue development: Govt

“District collectors with a pro-active development agenda are targetted and kidnapped. In the short and medium terms,this challenge has to be met and overcome in worst-affected areas,” Minister of State for Home Jitendra Singh told the Rajya Sabha in a written reply.

“….The Integrated Action Plan (for Naxal-hit states) is also a tool to bridge the trust deficit between the government and local communities in these areas,” he said.

Singh said,”That,this purpose has been achieved in some measure,even in the worst-affected areas,can be seen by the action of CPI (Maoist) in targetting the district collectors – there was an effort to kill the collector of Bijapur,Chhattisgarh in a landmine explosion recently and a young and pro-active collector of Sukma in Chhattisgarh has been kidnapped by them.

“In spite of such setbacks,the government is determined to sustain these development efforts,” the Minister said.

32-year-old 2006 batch IAS officer Alex Paul Menon was taken captive on Saturday by Maoists from Majhipara village in Raipur district.

Singh said that 26 districts in various states account for nearly 80 per cent of the total LWE violence.

“The states of Chhattisgarh,Jharkhand,Bihar and Odisha are considered badly affected by left wing extremism. The states of West Bengal and Maharashtra are considered partially affected. The states of Andhra Pradesh,Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh are considered slightly affected states.

“There is substantial improvement in the situation in Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal whereas LWE violence has remained low-key in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh,” Singh said.

Support swells for Menon on Facebook

Even as efforts are on to secure the release of Alex Paul Menon,a page created for the IAS officer by his family and friends on social networking site Facebook has become a big hit.

The page,’Free Alex Paul Menon’,has already registered more than 2,500 hits and the numbers are rising.

One comment says life should be a torch that will be passed on from one generation to the next and adds this simple motto drives Paul Menon’s life.

“He has been an inspiration to everyone who he meets in the journey of life,” the comment says.

It goes on to say only a few dare to dive in the deepest ocean to get a pearl,while millions watch the dancing waves. The message says Paul Menon wants to be among the handfuls who dare to make a difference and bring in precious pearls of social reforms.

There are photos and posts of news articles on the abduction of Menon for whom the maximum support is coming from his home state,Tamil Nadu.

One from Tamil Nadu thanked state Chief Minister Jayalalithaa and her predecessor M Karunanidhi for talking to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to secure Menon’s release.

32-year-old Menon hails from Tirunelveli district of south Tamil Nadu and is the first collector of the newly created Sukma district in Chhattisgarh.

Naxals abducted the 2006-batch officer on Saturday from Majhipara village in Chhattisgarh’s Raipur district when he was holding a meeting as part of the government’s special Gram Suraj Abhiyan.

A day later,the Maoists had set April 25 as deadline which expired yesterday. Their demands included an immediate halt to all police action against them and release of eight fellow comrades including two women,even as the state government has appealed the extremists to extend their deadline.