20 more districts under SRE scheme

New Delhi: The Centre has decided to sanction Rs 415 crore to nine Naxal-hit states under the Security Related Expenditure (SRE) Scheme and extend its cover to 20 more districts hit by the menace. The Home Ministry`s SRE Committee accorded the in-principle approval to the annual work plan of nine Maoist affected states for Rs 414.75 crore for the year 2012-13.

Besides, the Ministry also decided to extend the coverage of the SRE scheme to 20 more districts for the purpose of reimbursing security-related expenditure incurred by the state governments in dealing with Left Wing Extremism, official sources said. With this, the SRE scheme now covers 103 districts of the country. New districts included under SRE scheme in Bihar are Muzaffarpur, Sheohar, Vaishali, Banka, Lakhisarai, Begusarai and Khagaria. In Chhattisgarh, the new districts are Dhamtari, Gariyaband, Balod and Mahasamund. Jharkhand districts are Dumka, Deoghar and Pakur and Maharashtra`s Aheri.