By IANS,
Raipur : The bullet has never produced a solution to any problem in the world and in Chhattisgarh too, only the ballot can bring an end to decade-old leftist insurgency, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh said Thursday.
“Has the bullet ever produced a result to any rift in any part of the world? Only ballot and dialogue with a positive frame of mind can bring a permanent solution to Maoist insurgency,” Singh told IANS here.
He said that his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government that bagged 11 out of 12 assembly seats of restive but mineral rich Bastar region in the November polls was determined to lift living standard of millions of Bastar’s tribal families.
“I am committed to work for the innocent impoverished people of Bastar. A lot of investment is coming up in the region in the steel sector but Maoists are enemies to development as they are blasting school buildings and halting road construction work, which is totally unacceptable to the government,” he said.
The chief minister was referring to planned investment of Tata Steel that has a deal with the government to invest Rs.100 billion in Bastar district and Rs.70 billion by Essar Steel in Dantewada district for integrated steel plants.
“If they (Maoists) think they enjoy peoples’ support, then they should adopt the ballot method not bullets as the Maoists did in Nepal,” he said.