IAP helps reduce naxal violence

UPA’s special development plan for 82 naxal-affected districts has decreased violence related to left-wing extremism, latest government data shows. Chetan Chauhan reports.

Updated on: Jul 22, 2013, 01:26:42 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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UPA’s special development plan for 82 naxal-affected districts has decreased violence related to left-wing extremism, latest government data shows.

The Integrated Action Plan (IAP), started in 2011, saw Rs 6,090 crore allocated and 74% of the money utilized with roads, drinking water facilities, and social infrastructure like schools and anganwadi centres prioritized.

Around 1.10 lakh projects were taken up and 77 % of them were completed by the end of June showing how a focused approach can help. The IAP is monitored by the planning commission through regular video-conferencing with the district collectors, authorised to use funds as per the local need of villages.

“The IAP has helped in reducing local support for naxals by bridging the trust deficit,” said a former plan panel secretary Sudha Pillai. “It was a unique scheme where untied funds were provided at local level with a sound monitoring mechanism and accountability for success and failures”.

The data for 2012-13 showed an overall decline in naxal violence in three years of the programme resulting in fewer casualties among security personnel. However, the home ministry credits security offensive and use of aerial surveillance for fall in violence and not IAP.

However, the panel is not in agreement with the Home Ministry’s view. The functionary said that the IAP objectives have been met in most states even though the scheme was poorly implemented in Bihar, where naxal movement is said to be gaining ground.

In the 11 districts covered under IAP in Bihar, the expenditure was just 61.5%, much lower than the national average, with two districts — Munger and Kaimur — not seeking any money in 2012-13. West Champaran district took up 1480 projects and completed none. Munger completed only 25% of the projects undertaken. The best performing district was Gaya with 96 % projects completed. Maharashtra performed best followed by Chattisgarh and Jharkhand. The other worse performing states were Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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