08 January,2009 08:46 AM IST | | PTI
Maharashtra government today asked the Centre to provide one airforce helicopter for meeting medical emergencies and evacuation from naxal areas and under barrel grenade launchers to combat left militancy effectively.
It also sought that the Centre provide "substantial assistance" for creating adequate housing stock for police personnel and their families in the state.
"An MI-17 type helicopter capable carrying sufficient loads would be required.
The Central government could get the Airforce to station one helicopter at Nagpur exclusively for meeting medical emergencies and evacuation from the naxal area," Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan said at the meeting of the Chief Ministers here.
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Seeking "substantial assistance" for creating housing stock for policemen, Chavan said that the duty hours of policemen were long and arduous and proper housing will help mitigate their hardship to a large extent.
Dwelling on Maharashtra's anti-naxal policy at the meet, Chavan said that the state follows a twin policy of conventional police action of arrests and encounters coupled with a policy to win the hearts and minds of the local population.
"The naxal surrender policy of the state has yielded good results and 145 naxals have surrendered upto December 31, 2008 as compared with 39 in the previous year," he stated at the meeting.
Five naxal camps were destroyed and around 270 kilogramme explosives were also recovered during the said period, he added.
Chavan apprised the Centre with the state's unique 'Gavbandi Yojna' which has been formulated to combat naxalism. Under this scheme, a village that adopts a panchayat resolution to the effect that no person from the village will either join the naxal or provide them with logistical support, is given a grant of Rs three lakh for implementing development works, he explained.
"A total of 565 villages have so far been declared Gavbandi," Chavan added maintaining Maharashtra has been able to contain to a large extent naxal related activities in the districts of Gadchiroli and Gondia which are the most affected by this problem.
He also stated that the number of naxal attacks on policemen, on civilians have shown a declining trend in the state and sought support from the Centre in its efforts.
The state has created a Special Action Group with a strength of 300 police personnel on the line of the Grey Hounds of Andhra Pradesh and placed this group at Nagpur, he added.
