Home Minister P Chidambaram on Friday denied that the Centre was launching an ‘Operation Green Hunt’ to smoke out Maoists, and dismissed it as a media creation. He said the Centre was only providing assistance to the states wherever necessary and said local police were responsible for maintaining law and order in their respective areas.

“The Operation Green Hunt or whatever is a pure invention of the media. State governments are carrying on counter-insurgency measures against the Naxalites wherever necessary. The Centre is providing assistance by way of central paramilitary forces, intelligence sharing and technical help,” he said.

To a query on Maoist leader Kishenji’s statement that the Centre should declare a ceasefire before talks, Chidambaram said he has no information about the demands of the Maoists. “I have not seen any such statement from the CPI (Maoist),” he told mediapersons after reviewing the passing out parade of the 61st batch of the IPS at the National Police Academy here.