Govt to push growth in naxal areas: Shinde

In an attempt to wean away the youth from violence, home minister Sushilkumar Shinde said the government will relax educational requirements of aspirants from naxal-hit states to enable them to get government jobs, particularly in the police.

In an attempt to wean away the youth from violence, home minister Sushilkumar Shinde said the government will relax educational requirements of aspirants from naxal-hit states to enable them to get government jobs, particularly in the police.

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Talking about naxalism, he said the government was “fully alert” to the possibility of foreign groups, including Lashkar-e-Taiba supporting Maoists.

Shinde said the government had launched several recruitment drives in naxal-hit districts but due to low level of education, many youth were left out.

The home ministry is mulling to relax the qualification required for hiring these youth in the government, especially in the police forces, he said.

The red corridor is the most backward part of the country with low literacy rate.

For instance, Odisha has been able to push up literacy rate to 73% in 2011, almost on a par with the national average of 74%. But Maoist-infested districts including Malkangiri and Koraput have less than 50% literacy rate. Neighbouring Dantewada district in Chhattisgarh, too had a literacy rate of just about 43%.

A Central Reserve Police Force officer recalled that he had, many years ago, violated the rules to help tribal candidates clear the written examination since “it seemed so unfair to expect them to compete with candidates in towns and cities”.

The home minister said the youth would also be imparted training on skill development on the line of a similar scheme being implemented in Jammu and Kashmir. “After their training they will be sent for various jobs,” he said.