Gogoi bargains hard for Maoist relief funds

With the Centre indicating its willingness to declare two insurgency-prone east Assam districts -Tinsukia and Dibrugarh- as Maoist-affected, Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi wants seven districts to be included. Sanjib Kr Baruah reports.

With the Centre indicating its willingness to declare two insurgency-prone east Assam districts-Tinsukia and Dibrugarh- as Maoist-affected, Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi wants seven districts to be included.

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"I have requested the Centre to include some more districts," Gogoi said.

Tagging these districts as Maoist-hit would enable their inclusion under the Planning Commission's integrated action plan (IAP) which would entitle the affected districts to R30 crore additional developmental funds every year.

This is in the face of staunch opposition from the plan panel which is against the granting of Maoist-hit tag to any more districts mainly because of availability of adequate funds. But there are indications that the Centre may override the plan panel's opposition.

"Declaration of districts under the IAP depends on the number of body count of victims in these areas. But the ways things are, why wait for the body count to climb in the first place. There is a need to pre-empt that," a top Assam Police officer.