Naxalism big challenge,says new Home Secy

The 1975-batch Bihar cadre officer said the government would continue to deal with the menace by persisting with its two-pronged strategy of police action and development projects to deal with Maoists.

We have strengthened our forces. We will strengthen them further,providing them more training. We will focus on intelligence input,which is very important,and coordinate with state governments in carrying out development projects, he said.

At the same time,he acknowledged that there was a need to strengthen the state police forces and said the Centre would continue to assist the states in this task.

Singh was full of praise for the outgoing Home Secretary,G K Pillai,who retired on Thursday,saying he had done a tremendous job in confronting the challenges facing the nation in the last couple of years.

I will look forward to continuing the initiatives which have been taken. I look forward to confronting the challenges in the same manner as my predecessor. And I am quite certain that we shall continue the policy that we have, he said.