Decisive move must be made to end insugencies-Amit Shah

Union home minister Amit Shah has said that the fight against the Maoist groups is now in its final stages and a decisive move must be made to end the insurgencies. Addressing a review meeting on Left Wing Extremism in New Delhi on Sunday, he said that there should be a joint strategy to choke the flow of funds to Maoist insurgent groups. He said the death toll due to Left Wing Extremism violence dropped to 200 in a year. He urged all chief ministers to take the issue on priority for the next year so that a permanent solution can be found to the problem.

Shah highlighted that incidents of Maoist violence have come down by 70% from an all-time high of 2,258 in 2009 to 665 in 2020. He said deaths also dropped by 82% from an all-time high of 1,005 in 2010 to 183 in 2020. Shah said that areas under Maoists' influence also dropped with its geographical spread shrinking from 96 districts in 2010 to just 53 in 2020. Under Special Central Assistance (SCA) Scheme for further impetus to development in the most affected districts, more than 10000 projects have been taken of which more than 80% are already completed. Rs 2698.24 Crore has been released to the LWE affected States under SCA.

He suggested that regular review meetings be conducted at a chief ministerial, chief secretary level and the DGP level, which could help in resolving several problems. He said the Centre is optimistic of reducing the menace to an insignificant level at the earliest. The meeting was attended by chief ministers Naveen Patnaik (Odisha), K Chandrashekar Rao (Telangana), Nitish Kumar (Bihar), Shivraj Singh Chouhan (Madhya Pradesh), Uddhav Thackeray (Maharashtra) and Hemant Soren (Jharkhand). Union ministers Ashwini Vaishnaw, Giriraj Singh, Arjun Munda and Nityananda Rai also were present. Senior officials from Chhattisgarh, West Bengal and Kerala, Union Home Secretary, top officials of Central Armed Police Forces and many senior officers of Central and State Governments also attended the meeting.

Ministry of Home Affairs is supporting the State Governments for Capacity Building and strengthening of Security Apparatus by deployment of CAPF Battalions, provision of helicopters and UAVs and sanction of India Reserve Battalions (IRBs)/ Special India Reserve Battalions (SIRBs). Funds are also provided under Modernization of Police Force (MPF), Security Related Expenditure (SRE) Scheme and Special Infrastructure Scheme (SIS) for modernization and training of State Police.