By Our Correspondent in Bhubaneswar, February 11, 2015 :

Odisha chief minister, Naveen Patnaik once again sought waiver of Rs 1450.29 crore demanded by the Centre towards deployment of Central Forces in the Maoist prone areas of the state.

In a letter to union home minister Rajnath Singh, the chief minister on Wednesday said it was the responsibility of both the Centre and the states to fight left wing extremism in various parts of the country, including Odisha, by pooling their resources together.

Stating that deployment of Central forces was essential to supplement the efforts of the state police to counter the Maoists who hold sway in many states, Patnaik said the Odisha government had also recruited, trained and deployed a large number of police personnel for anti-Maoist operations by bearing huge expenditure from the state exchequer.

Patnaik described union home ministry’s demand for payment of Rs 1450.29 crore as quite unreasonable.

“In the present internal security scenario, joint and coordinated operations of state and Central forces are the need of the hour and such demands should not take precedence over the urgent operational requirements so far as deployment of Central forces is considered”, Patnaik remarked.