Patnaik vows to combat Maoists with 'full force'

"Naxalites must realise that the state will overcome them sooner than later," Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik told the assembly while replying to a debate on an adjournment motion 'increasing Maoist menace in the state.'

Asking the extremists to return to mainstream of the society, Patnaik said law of the land would certainly prevail as the state government would not allow any "unlawful activities on its soil."

Calling for a "sea change" in the Maoist outfits' ideology, the chief minister said left wing extremists were indulging in "extortion, drug peddling, black marketing, and committing acts of cruelty."

While some of the treasury bench members raised issues relating to human rights violation, Patnaik said, "I am all for human rights."

Patnaik wondered how the Naxalites stood for human rights if they went on killing innocent people and creating panic.

"People of this country, particularly in Orissa, were peace loving and violators of law did not have any place here," he said.

Offering statistics, he said there had been 1,128 Naxal-related incidents in the first half of the year as against 766 in the country in the corresponding period in 2008.

"Since it is a menace of national magnitude and has inter-state ramification, developments in one state have an impact on the development in their neighbouring areas," Patnaik added.