London, Aug 25 : Hitting out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Friday said there is a monopoly of the PMO on the External Affairs Ministry and that External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has no job except spending a lot of time working on people's visas.

Speaking at an event in London in the International Institute of Strategic Studies (IISS), Gandhi said: "You notice one thing, everybody says that it is a great thing that India's Foreign Minister spends a lot of her time working on visas.

"Do you realise what that statement means? It means the Foreign Minister has nothing better to do than get people visas. So, only there is the monopoly of the Foreign Ministry, and the PMO (Prime Minister's Office) has monopoly over the Foreign Ministry."

Sushma Swaraj really has nothing to do, though she is quite a capable lady, the Congress leader said. "If you actually give her the power to do something, she could probably break that monopoly (in the ministry)."

He maintained: "In India...if you're seeing something that is not scaling in India, just look at the monopoly that is not letting that happen.

"If you bring in new voices, if you bring in business, if you bring in other think tanks and give them actual power in the Foreign Ministry, it'll scale immediately."

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Bijapur, Apr 12 (PTI): Three Naxalites were killed in an encounter with security forces in Chhattisgarh's Bijapur district on Saturday morning, police said.

The gunfight broke out in a forest in the Indravati National Park area around 9 am when a joint team of security personnel was out on an anti-Naxalite operation, Inspector General of Police, Bastar Range Sundarraj P said.

Personnel of the District Reserve Guard (DRG) from Bijapur and Dantewada districts, Special Task Force (STF), the 202nd and 210th battalions of CoBRA (Commando Battalion for Resolute Action — an elite unit of the CRPF) were involved in the operation, he said.

The DRG is a unit of the state police.

The official said the bodies of three Naxalites and a cache of weapons and explosives were recovered from the spot.

The operation was underway in the area, he added.

With the latest action, 138 Naxalites have been gunned down in separate encounters in the state so far this year. Of them, 122 were eliminated in the Bastar division, comprising seven districts, including Bijapur.