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 para-military forces have been provided to the state since trouble broke out in December last year.
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.
Patil is said to have pointed out that required attention was not given by the state government to strengthen the police force and said out of five India Reserve battalions sanctioned for Orissa, the state had raised only one.
He also said the paramilitary forces have spared no effort in providing personnel even at the cost of withdrawing them from other states.
Patil told the chief minister that in December last year, the Centre had rushed 600 para-military force personnel while in February this year 400 more jawans were sent in addition to 2400 personnel already deployed there.
After the killing of the VHP leader Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati in August, 2000 more personnel were despatched.