Tags : nation, patil, orissa violence, letter
Posted: Friday , Oct 03, 2008 at 1835 hrs IST New Delhi, October 3::
After the Union Cabinet took a serious view and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh expressed anguish over continuing violence against Christians in Orissa, Home Minister Shivraj Patil on Friday shot off a strongly-worded letter to Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik asking him to take effective measures and provide security for the community.
The letter came hours after the Union Cabinet expressed grave concern over the situation in the state with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh directing Patil to present an appraisal report on the situation at the next cabinet meeting.
The Prime Minister is also understood to have expressed anguish over the situation on which he had to face embarrassment during the recent India-EU Summit in Marseilles.
In the letter, the Home Minister is understood to have stated that enough paramilitary forces have been provided to the state since trouble broke out in December, 2007.
He told Patnaik to take effective measures to control communal violence and to apprehend elements that continue to stoke violence and hatred.
Giving details of the deployment of central para-military forces to the state, Patil said that merely continuing to ask for additional forces after every few days could not be a solution.
Patil pointed out that an MI-17 helicopter was positioned at Bhubaneswar from August 31 to September 11 even without a formal request from the state government to facilitate transportation of troops to control situation and evacuation of the injured.
The helicopter was again sent from September 17 to 26 at the request of the state government, he said, adding that the authorities did only recce and not use it even once for transportation of troops -- the primary purpose for which the state government had asked for retention of the aircraft.
... contd.
Epaper
Newsletter
Stocks
Weather
Horoscope
