The Union Home Minister Shri Rajnath Singh chaired a meeting here today to discuss development issues regarding the Left Wing Extremism (LWE) affected States, Jammu & Kashmir, North-East States and the Union Territories. The Minister for Science & Technology, Earth Sciences and Environment, Forest & Climate Change, Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Minister for Human Resource Development, Shri Prakash Javadekar, Minister of State for Communications (I/C) and Railways, Shri Manoj Sinha and MoS (Home) Shri Hansraj Gangaram Ahir, along with Secretaries and other Senior Officers of the Ministries were present at the meeting.

The Home Minister said that the overall security situation in the country has shown considerable improvement. Shri Rajnath Singh said the LWE situation is well under control and this has been possible due to the efforts of the Security Forces and the development initiatives undertaken by both the Centre and the States. It is time to move forward with speed on the development front, he added.

The following issues pertaining to the LWE affected States were discussed:-

• Increase of limit of general approval, under the Forest Conservation Act, 1980, from 05 hectares to 40 hectares for all linear projects.
• Upgradation of 2187 mobile towers installed in Phase-I and installation of 4072 mobile towers in Phase-11.
• Operationalisation of approved 1789 post offices, approval for additional 4173 post offices in the 106 LWE affected districts and provision of core banking services in these post offices.
• Improvement of education infrastructure by opening additional Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas and Kendriya Vidyalayas, opening of additional girls hostels and upgradation of schools in Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan and extension of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan to all affected districts.
• Provision of solar pumps, lamps and street lights in LWE affected districts.

Improvement of communication infrastructure in the North-East, Jammu & Kashmir (particularly Ladakh Region) and Lakshadweep was discussed. Strengthening of education infrastructure in J&K was also discussed at length.

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PK/SS

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