PM stresses on equal growth to beat terror

The conference came after a series of bomb attacks across the country, blamed on suspected Pakistan-based Islamist militant groups and their Indian Muslim recruits.

Singh, however, chose to focus more on the failure to deliver social justice and development to India8217;s poorest regions, saying the neglect had alienated people and helped open up economic, social and religious divides.

8220;These divides and disparities lead to disaffection, large-scale migration and discord,8221; Singh said, a rare link drawn between economic inequality and internal security by a top government leader.

8220;In many cases internal security problems arise out of uneven development and we need to address this issue if we are to make any long-term headway in combating extremist elements.8221;

Asia8217;s third-largest economy has grown an average 8 per cent a year over the past four years, driven largely by consumer demand from the middle class and soaring foreign investment.

But despite the boom, official data shows an estimated 800 million of India8217;s billion-plus people live on 50 US cents a day.

POLICE CRIPPLED

Singh called for better policing and said states needed to do a better job of intelligence gathering and coordinating security operations, as well as beefing up and modernising their police forces.

8220;This requires greater investment in our police forces. This is not wasteful investment. This is an investment in our future,8221; said the economist-turned-politician who has in the past also stressed the need for inclusive growth.

A four-decade Maoist rebellion has grown because of social inequality and spread to more than a dozen states, an insurgency that Singh has described as the single biggest security challenge.

The Maoists were trying to cripple infrastructure such as roads, bridges, power lines and telecom towers to hurt development and sustain their ideology of deprivation and neglect.

8220;Such regions get trapped in a vicious cycle of a poor law-and-order situation coupled with slow economic development.

8220;One situation feeds on the other and it becomes increasingly difficult to pull these areas out of the rut they are caught in.8221;

Maoist cadres were now better trained, the movement increasingly militarised and, in some regions, enlarged their area of influence, the prime minister said.

The police, by contrast, is often poorly equipped, unmotivated and understaffed, with thousands of unfilled vacancies in affected states and little or no coordination between states to fight a rebellion that has killed thousands.