On a day when Leader of Opposition Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy presented a grim picture on law and order front in Andhra Pradesh with the killing of 14 YSRC activists by the ruling TDP men in the last three months, Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu informed the Assembly that the overall situation was peaceful and continuously monitored by police.
In a statement to the House, Mr. Naidu said the government had asked police to take steps for strict maintenance of law and order after it was sworn in. There were unprecedented number of political murders in the last one decade and the factionists of Rayalaseema eliminated TDP cadre ruthlessly. Assassins of TDP MLA Paritala Ravi were also eliminated to remove any evidence linking them to the then political leadership. Government will not spare any efforts to curb such politically motivated violence.
Referring to Maoist violence, Mr. Naidu said police reports suggested that there were 83 underground cadre from Andhra Pradesh. Twenty two of them operated from Chhattisgarh and other States.
There was a steady decline in Maoist offences due to consistency in the policy against the outfit by various governments since 1995. The policy of strong and tactical policing by commando forces like Greyhounds and proactive development strategies as well as welfare measures have continuously weaned away the youth from CPI (Maoist). They looked to democratically elected governments for employment and development.
He said the government will continue the two pronged strategy of disarming the underground cadre while relentlessly developing remote and extremist affected areas. The government will continue to encourage surrender and rehabilitation of Maoists.
There was no visible terrorist activity in the State, except the arrest of Al-Umma cadre at Puttur in Chittoor district last year.
