Union Home and Cooperation Minister Shri Amit Shah chaired the meeting of the Parliamentary Consultative Committee of Ministry of Home Affairs on Left Wing Extremism, in New Delhi today. Union Minister of State for Home Affairs, Shri Nityanand Rai, Shri Ajay Kumar Mishra and Shri Nishith Pramanik, Members of the Committee from both the Houses of the Parliament, Union Home Seceratary, DG, BSF and CRPF and several senior officials of Union Home Ministry and line Ministries were present during the meeting.

In his address, the Union Home Minister said that there is no place for violence and Left Wing Extremism ideas in the “self-reliant New India” under the leadership of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi and the Government of India has adopted a policy of zero tolerance in this direction. Shri Shah said that under the leadership of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, the Ministry of Home Affairs’ policy to deal with Left Wing Extremism has three main pillars, which are, strategy to curb extremists' violence with Ruthless Approach, better coordination between Centre and States, and, eliminating support for Left Wing Extremists through Public participation in development.

Shri Amit Shah said that this three-pronged strategy has given historic success in curbing Left Wing Extremism in the last eight years, such as-

• For the first time after nearly 04 decades in 2022, the number of deaths of civilians and security forces has been brought under 100.

76% reduction in violent incidents related to Left Wing Extremism is observed in 2022 in comparison to 2010.

• The number of civilian and security personnel who lost their lives in Left Wing Extremism incidents has come down by 90% to 98 in 2022 in comparison to the figure of 1005 in 2010 and number of Left Wing Extremism-affected districts reduced to 45 from earlier 90.

• Number of districts under Security Related Expenditure (SRE) scheme reduced from 126 to 90 in April-2018 and further reduced to 70 since July-2021.

• Number of districts most affected by LWE has reduced from 35 to 30 in April-2018 and further reduced to 25 since July-2021.

• Since 2019, security forces have achieved huge success in establishing 175 new camps in Left Wing Extremism affected areas, and, reducing the security vacuum along with making top leadership of Left Wing Extremists ineffective, to break the backbone of Left Wing Extremism. He said that as a result of these efforts, success has been achieved against Left Wing Extremism in difficult areas like Budha Pahad and Chakarbanda and Bihar, Jharkhand and Odisha have been almost freed from Left Wing Extremism.

The Union Home Minister said that our security forces have caught the Naxalites with new innovative methods and under this policy, with the establishment of new security camps in Lohardaga district of Jharkhand, in February 2022 13-day joint operation got many successes.

Shri Amit Shah said that Ministry of Home Affairs is determined to destroy the entire ecosystem of Left Wing Extremists by financial choking. He said that The BSF Airwing has been strengthened with the induction of new pilots and engineers in the last one year to aid operations in Left Wing Extremism-affected areas and save lives of our soldiers.

The Union Home Minister said that Modi Government has made several successful efforts to better coordination with the governments of Left Wing Extremism affected states without any party or ideology related bias. He said, the Modi Government is providing funds for modernization of state police forces and assistance related to construction of fortified police stations to the affected states without any discrimination.

Shri Amit Shah said that security as well as accelerated development in Left Wing Extremism-affected areas is the main focus of the Government’s policy under the leadership of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi and the government is taking several steps for the all-round development of these areas. He said that along with the flagship schemes of the Government of India, several special schemes are being implemented for the development of these areas. He said that construction of 17,462 km of roadways have been sanctioned to improve road connectivity, out of which work on about 11,811 km has been completed. Apart from this, to improve mobile connectivity, 2,343 mobile towers have been installed in the first phase during the last eight years under the Mobile Tower Project and in view of the development of technology, approval has also been given to upgrade them to 4G. Apart from this, 2,542 new mobile towers are being installed in the second phase.

Shri Shah said that opening of Eklavya schools in Left Wing Extremism affected tribal dominated blocks have been placed in Priority Areas since August-2019. While 142 Eklavya Residential Model Schools (EMRS) were sanctioned in 21 years prior to 2019, in the past 3 years, 103 EMRS have been sanctioned. He said that so far, 245 Eklavya Schools have been sanctioned in 90 Left Wing Extremism affected districts and out of these 121 are functional. He said that 1,258 bank branches and 1,348 ATMs have been opened in the last 8 years in the worst left wing extremism affected districts for financial inclusion of the citizens. Apart from this, in the 90 SRE districts affected by Left Wing Extremism, 4,903 post offices have been opened in the last 8 years to ensure the reachability of post offices within 3 km radius of every Gram Panchayat, out of which 3114 post offices have been opened during the last one financial year only. The skill development scheme's scope has been increased from 34 districts to 47 districts in the year 2016, and, under it, 47 ITIs and 68 SDCs have been sanctioned, out of which 43 ITIs and 38 SDCs are functional. In the meeting, all the members gave their valuable inputs and appreciated the efforts of the Modi Government in fighting Left Wing Extremism.

*****

RK / AY / AKS / RR/ AS