'States have role in anti-naxal ops'

Home minister P Chidambaram on Thursday asked state police chiefs to take ownership of anti-naxal measures to check the country's "most violent movement".

Home minister P Chidambaram on Thursday asked state police chiefs to take ownership of anti-naxal measures to check the country's "most violent movement". Chidambaram said the cooperation between the centre and the states had yielded "good results" and state police chiefs "must take ownership of counter insurgency measures and devise short and medium term strategies".

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Naxal violence have cost lives of 166 policemen over the last 12 months, more than twice the lives lost in J&K and northeast put together.

The minister pointed that violence levels had not abated in worst-affected states of Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Bihar and Orissa while there are reports that Maoists had asked their West Bengal unit to develop guerrilla bases in Jangalmahal.