Force alone cannot tackle Naxal menace: Jharkhand

Ahead of a meeting of four Chief Ministers here on February 9,which is meant to devise ways to tackle the Naxal menace....

Ahead of a meeting of four Chief Ministers here on February 9,which is meant to devise ways to tackle the Naxal menace,the Shibu Soren government on Friday called for a holistic approach,saying the problem could not be solved by mere induction of force.

You cannot hold a gun to somebodys head and solve the Naxalite problem. It is not that easy. What I mean to say is that the problem cannot be solved by mere induction of force. There has to be a holistic approach to the problem at the root of which lie development of areas and the people who have been downtrodden for ages, said Jharkhand principal secretary home J B Tubid. He was here to attend a meeting of the Eastern Zonal Council,also attended by West Bengal chief secretary Ashok Mohan Chakrabarti,West Bengal home secretary Ardhendu Sen,Orissa chief secretary Tarun Kanti Mishra and Bihar chief secretary Anup Kumar Mukherjee.

Just a couple of weeks ago,Jharkhand Chief Minister Shibu Soren had said there were no Naxalites in his state and all those who took to arms were his brothers and sisters. In tune with Soren,the Jharkhand official said those who were called Naxalites were all from grassroots level. By mere induction of forces,by killing them,can you solve the problem? We dont think so. A lot of other things have to be done. One has to be lenient about this, Tubid said.

He also raised questions about the joint operations that are going to be launched against the Naxals. How can there be a joint force? Law and order is a state subject. If the Naxalites strike in West Bengal,the Bengal police cannot come to Jharkhand. Similarly,we also cannot go to Orissa. If there is a joint force,someone from the central government should head it, he added.

However,the official denied allegations that the Jharkhand government was not serious about tackling the Maoist problem. We had a lot of meetings with the West Bengal government and they never said that we were lenient. All these allegations are baseless, he said.

However,senior officials of the West Bengal government sounded sceptical about the Jharkhand governments attitude. We dont know what they are up to. We are waiting for the February 9 meeting where we will get to know their attitude, said an official.

Apart from Soren,the other Chief Ministers who will attend the meting are Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee of West Bengal,Nitish Kumar of Bihar and Naveen Patnaik of Orissa. Union Home Minister P Chidambaram will preside over the meeting.