Union home secretary calls for more amenities in extremist-affected areas

VIJAYAWADA: Union home secretary Ajay Bhalla has called for helping people living in remote villages or areas affected by left-wing extremist activities, to enable them to avail the benefits of several welfare schemes and developmental works.

“It is important to provide them proper road connectivity either by laying roads or repairing the existing roads,” he said at a meeting he held with chief secretaries and DGPs in virtual mode from New Delhi on Friday.

The senior official reviewed the provisions for basic amenities, installation of cell towers and implementation of welfare schemes in the extremist-affected areas.

Chief Secretary K.S. Jawahar Reddy said that in such villages, AP is developing 81 roads and bridges through the panchayat raj department. He sounded confident that, of these, 21 works would be completed by the end of December while the remaining works would be over by March.

He said that as the works required permission from the forest department, “we are in the process of obtaining this in an expeditious manner to complete the works.”

DGP K. Rajendranath Reddy underlined the need for sanction of more funds from the Centre for developing and strengthening the roads and bridges, especially in parts of Alluri Sitarama Raju, Parvathipuram Manyam, Visakhapatnam and Srikakulam districts. The home secretary nodded in agreement.