Reiterating that Left-wing extremism remained the gravest threat to internal security, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Wednesday that the recent events underscored the need for “urgent and considered action to root out this problem.”
“No quarter can be given to those who have taken upon themselves to challenge the authority of the Indian state and the fabric of our democratic polity,” he said, in obvious reference to the April 6 massacre of 76 CRPF personnel by Maoists in Chhattisgarh's Dantewada district.
But, “we cannot overlook the fact that many of areas in which such extremism flourishes are under-developed and many of the people, mainly poor tribals, who live in these areas have not shared equitably the fruits of development,” he said.
It was incumbent upon the government to ensure that no area of the country was denied the benefits of development programmes, he said at a function to mark the Civil Services Day.
He asked the civil servants to devise innovative ways to ensure that the benefits of the government's ambitious development programmes reached the people. Every effort must be made to make full use of the potential of the Panchayati Raj system for decentralised and socially just development.
Pointing out that there was a widespread feeling that the government was not completely successful in taking the benefits of the development programmes to the people, Dr. Singh asked the civil servants to harness information technology and involve the beneficiaries in implementation to address leakages, corruption and lack of transparency.
The inclusive growth was the centrepiece of the United Progressive Alliance's development agenda, and fast economic growth provided the government with the resources to address poverty, ignorance and disease. “Rapid growth will have little meaning, however, unless social economic inequalities, which still afflict our society, are not eliminated quickly and effectively,” he said.
Last year was particularly difficult, Dr. Singh said as the country was affected by the global financial crisis, but the calibrated response it fashioned ensured that the adverse effect of the slowdown was much less on India than on other countries. “Our country was able to post a respectable growth of 6.7 per cent during 2008-09. The growth rate for 2009-10 is now estimated to be 7.2 per cent, and the forecast for 2010-11 is 8.25 per cent.”
