Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik on Sunday asked the Centre to consider his proposal in setting up banks in Maoist-affected areas and observed that a banking correspondent cannot be a replacement for banks in areas hit by LWE (Left-wing extremism).

Naveen assured the Centre that the state would provide land, building, etc, for setting up bank branches free of cost in such areas.

Addressing a meeting convened by Union home minister Amit Shah on extremism in New Delhi, Naven said: “We have not been successful in creating banking facilities in these areas. The state government will provide land, building, etc, for setting up bank branches free of cost. I would urge the Union government to take expeditious steps to set up banks within a specific time frame of one year or so. Banking correspondent cannot be a replacement for banks in Left-wing extremism (LWE) areas.”

Naveen stressed on the improvement of accessibility in the Maoist-affected areas and work done for their economic improvement.

“In our experience in handling of LWE, one important learning point is that accessibility and in turn economic prosperity is the biggest anti-LWE measure we should aim for and these have to be done in scale,” he said.

Providing mobile connectivity to areas in southern and western Odisha should be taken on a priority basis, the chief minister pointed out.

Naveen said: “There are 6,278 villages in Odisha without any mobile access or connectivity, the largest number in the country. We thank the Union home ministry for sanctioning 488 mobile towers for Odisha recently. But to provide (mobile network) coverage to other uncovered villages, an estimated 2,000 more mobile base stations will be required.”

Naveen also said that most of the interior areas depend on mobile connectivity and mobile Internet for banking, education and delivery of all government services. “Today, the basic need, therefore, is of 4G mobile base stations at all places. It is, therefore, required to upgrade the 2G base stations also erected earlier,” he said.

Naveen also demanded the four-laning of National Highway 326 from Jeypore to Motu via Malkangiri up to Bhadrachalam. “This will provide a parallel road for traffic from eastern India and Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand to the south, especially to Bangalore and Hyderabad. This corridor in addition to reducing the travelling time substantially will also provide huge economic impetus to this region,” he said.

The chief minister said LWE-affected districts are not part of the railway network. “The railway ministry and Odisha government are already constructing two legs — from Jeypore to Nabarangpur and Jeypore to Malkangiri — through cost sharing. The missing part between Malkangiri and Bhadrachalam of 153km length and the 118km-long Nabarangpur to Junagarh section can provide a very viable alternative path to the trunk routes of railway. This will have a huge impact on the economic growth of these areas,” Naveen said.

Naveen also suggested the “MHA (ministry of home affairs) should do a study on how many children from these LWE-affected areas across the country are getting into national level exams like NEET, IIT, JEE, etc. If our systems continue to bypass these areas, it is not going to help the cause of people of LWE-affected areas”.