Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation Shri Amit Shah addressed a press conferenceon Left Wing Extremism in Raipur, Chhattisgarh today. Addressing the press conference, Amit Shah said that under the leadership of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, the fight against left-wing extremism is in its last phase. He said that now is the time to strike the final blow against LWE with a strong strategy and ruthless approach.He said left-wing extremism will be completely eradicated in the country before March 2026.

Shri Amit Shah said that the Modi government has worked to instill confidence among the people in development instead of the ideology of left wingextremism. Union Home Minister said that left-wing extremism is the biggest challenge before the democratic system of the country and the Modi government has taken left-wing extremism as a challenge and is committed to eradicate this problem from the country. Union Home Minister called upon the youth involved in left-wing extremism to shun violence and join the Mahayagya of development of the country being led by Prime Minister Modi.

Shri Amit Shah said that the Modi government is moving ahead with the belief of development shunning the ideology of Left Wing Extremism. He said that the Central Government is making every effort to bridge the gap of lack of development created due to Left Wing Extremism. Shri Shah pointed out that due to the steadfastness of the Modi government, many states have been almost completely liberated from Left Wing Extremism during 2019 to 2024.

Union Home and Minister of Cooperation said that in 2022, for the first time in 4 decades, the number of deaths due to left-wing violence has come down below 100. He pointed out that the lowest number of LWE-related violent incidents have been reported between 2022 and 2024. Shri Shah said that while the highest number of deaths was recorded in 2010 at 1005, this number has come down to 138 in 2023. He said filling the security vacuum has dealt a severe blow to LWE's financing ecosystem. Limiting left-wing extremism is a victory for the country's security forces and democracy, he said.

Shri Amit Shah said that the ‘Bastariya Battalion’ was raised in CRPF in 2017 in which all the jawans were from the Bastar region. He said that after taking approval from the Union Cabinet, 400 tribal soldiers from Dantewada, Sukma and Bijapur were recruited in this battalion under a special campaign in 2022.

Union Home Minister said that along with fighting this problem, the security forces are also monitoring the development works in the left extremism affected areas. He said that in the last 10 years of Modi government, a lot of work has been done in Chhattisgarh towards connectivity, road construction and financial adjustment. Shri Shah said that the Chhattisgarh government will soon bring a new surrender policy so that the youth will be able to give up arms and join the mainstream of development in an effective manner. He said that the Chhattisgarh government has set a target of March 2025 to achieve 100 per cent saturation of all government schemes.Shri Shah said that the Home Ministry and the Chhattisgarh Government will jointly run a campaign to educate the people who have remained illiterate due to left wing extremism.

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