Denying any foreign funding to the Naxals, Government has said that development is the first part of its strategy to deal with the menace. However, peace is pre-requisite for carrying out developmental activities. Responding to supplementaries in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday, the Home Minister Mr. P. Chidambaram said that a large amount of money has been earmarked to the Naxal affected states and only 60 per cent of it has been spent. He informed the House that states has been asked to quicken the pace of development to build infrastructure and provide facilities to the areas affected by the Naxal menace. Mr. Chidambaram asserted that development process can gather momentum only after peace is restored in these areas. He said, the Planning Commission is about to finalise its recommendations for the 35 Naxal infested districts and assured the members that its scope will be enlarged to incorporate more districts into its ambit. Mr. Chidambaram said that the Naxal situation was reviewed in New Delhi at a meeting of Chief Ministers on 14th of last month and they endorsed the plan for the highly affected districts. He informed the House that the central government supplements the efforts of the state governments on the security front and the states have been asked to fill up vacancies in the police and implement Panchayats Act 1996 on priority to ensure involvement of local population in the development process. Mr. Chidambaram said counter insurgency and anti terrorism schools have been set up to give training to state police forces. Besides this, he said army is providing training to security forces in jungle warfare. He also rubbished the reports of terrorists having better equipments and said, the para military forces are better equipped to take on the challenge of Naxals.