The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : No rift with Centre on naxal talks, says YSR

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Feb 11, 2005

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

No rift with Centre on naxal talks, says YSR

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, FEB. 10. The Chief Minister, Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, today asserted that there were no differences over the approach of the State Government or the view of the Centre on the issue of peace talks with naxalites.

"There is total coordination between the State Government and the Centre, which has endorsed whatever we have been doing," the Chief Minister said here at a press conference at the end of his visit to the Capital.

Dr. Reddy said while naxalites withdrew from talks, the Government would urge them to come back. He said the first round of discussions had progressed well but there was some problem with regard to arms. The State Government was trying to persuade naxalites through intermediaries to give up arms and resume talks at the earliest. The Congress party, he said, wanted these groups to join the national mainstream.

As regards the combing operations that turned controversial last month when the special task force went close to some top naxal leaders in the forests, the Chief Minister said that the Government would act as was necessary to maintain law and order. "Whatever is required will be done. Depending on complaints we inquire and it could be anywhere,'' he said.

The Chief Minister said that the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, would visit Hyderabad during the first week of March when she would lay the foundation stone for the new Rajiv Gandhi International Airport and inaugurate a tourism college, set up at a cost of Rs. 36 crores.

Dr. Reddy said the Congress chief sought to know whether the State Government had computerised land revenue records, especially the title deeds it handed over to 1.10 lakh women on January 26 this year. The Chief Minister said he informed her that the State Government had begun a Rs. 20-crore pilot project in Nizamabad area to update land records.

He said the exercise was likely to be completed within two years and based on the experience it would be replicated elsewhere in the State.

The progress and status of the talks with naxalites also figured in his discussion with the Union Home Minister, Shivraj Patil.

In his interaction with the Human Resource Development Minister, Arjun Singh, the Chief Minister once again sought clearance for establishing an Indian Institute of Technology at Basra in Adilabad district, setting up of an extension centre of IIT Kharagpur, 33-year extension for two acres of land leased to the National Institute of Technology, Warangal, to the Tourism Development Corporation and setting up of 94 residential schools for backward class girls.

Meeting the Defence Minister, Pranab Mukherjee, the Chief Minister requested him to sort out the airspace problem with regard to the international airport.

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