The Union Home Minister Shri Amit Shah chaired a review meeting of the LWE situation in Chhattisgarh at Raipur today.  The Chief Minister, Deputy Chief Ministerof Chhattisgarh and senior officials including Union Home Secretary, Director (IB), Chief Secretary, Chhattisgarh, DG, CRPF and DGP, Chhattisgarh attended the meeting.

The Union Home Minister pointed out that the three internal security situations in J&K, North East and LWE have witnessed a significant improvement with a nearly 75% reduction in violence and geographical constriction by nearly 80%. He also mentioned that the Armed Forces Special Power Act has now been withdrawn from close to 80% of the areas in the North East. While appreciating the progress achieved in the fight against LWE, the Union Home Minister stated that there has been a significant reduction both in LWE-affected geographies and violence.

The Union Home Minister observed that on account of the combined efforts of the security forces and all the Central and State agencies, the LWE problem has been essentially confined to some pockets within Chhattisgarh. In this context, he mentioned that these areas need to be freed from the Maoist menace within the next three years. In this context, he emphasized the need for a detailed roadmap to be drawn up by all the concerned stakeholders, particularly relating to the targeting of the entire ecosystem sustaining LWE. Further, the Union Home Minister directed the State Police to fill up the remnant security gaps, ensure comprehensive investigations, closely monitor prosecution, choke finance streams and continue intelligence-led operations. He also stressed the need to review all inputs shared through the Multi-Agency Center and operationalize verified inputs.

The Union Home Minister stressed the need for saturation coverage of Central and State Govt. schemes in LWE-affected districts and utilization of security force camps to ensure the benefits of these schemes in villages in proximate areas. He mentioned that the MHA should be flexible both in the allotment of funds as also its usage in the highly LWE-affected districts in Chhattisgarh. He also highlighted the need for a proactive and sensitive handling of all local grievances about bonafide entitlements. Subsequently, on the directions of the Union Home Minister, a detailed interaction was held by the Union Home Secretary with the Collectors and SSPs of the highly LWE- affected districts.

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