New Delhi: The Union Minister of Home Affairs Amit Shah chaired a review meeting on Left Wing Extremism in New Delhi on Sunday.
The meeting was attended by the Union Minister of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, Giriraj Singh, Minister of Tribal Affairs Arjun Munda, Minister of Communications, IT and Railways, Ashwini Vaishnav, Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways, Gen VK Singh, Minister of State for Home Affairs, Nityanand Rai.
Chief Ministers of Bihar, Odisha, Maharashtra, Telangana, Madhya Pradesh, and Jharkhand and Home Minister of Andhra Pradesh, 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.
During the meeting, Amit Shah said that under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Government of India is committed to the development of Left Wing Extremism affected states. Shah said that it is a matter of happiness to share that under the leadership of the Prime Minister, there has been a lot of success due to the joint efforts of the Centre and the states in cracking down on Left Wing Extremism.
"While the incidents of Left Wing Extremism have come down by 23 per cent, the number of deaths has come down by 21 per cent. In decades of fighting, we have reached a point where the death toll is less than 200 for the first time and this is a huge achievement for all of us. He said that we all know that unless we get rid of the problem of Left Wing Extremism completely, the full development of the country and the states affected by it is not possible, he added.
Shah urged the states that the Chief Secretaries of the affected states should hold a review meeting with the DGPs and officers of central agencies at least every three months to deal with Left Wing Extremism, and then only we can take this fight forward.
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He said, "In the last two years, a huge and successful effort has been made to increase security camps in areas where security was not stringent, especially in Chhattisgarh, as well as in Maharashtra and Odisha. If regular review is done at the level of Chief Minister, Chief Secretary, and DGP, then the problems of coordination at the lower level will automatically get resolved."
Amit Shah said that recently, the Government of India has been successful in getting many extremist groups to surrender and lay down arms, especially in the North East. So far, about 16,000 cadres have joined the mainstream of the society, including the Bodoland Pact, the Bru Pact, the Karbi Anglong Pact, and the surrender by the insurgent cadres of Tripura. The Union Home Minister said that we welcome all those who want to leave the violence and join the mainstream.
He informed that the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi has taken an important decision to bring down the fixed expenditure of the States on the deployment of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs). As a result of this, there has been a reduction in the expenditure of the states on the deployment of CAPFs by about Rs 2900 crore in 2019-20 as compared to the year 2018-19. The Prime Minister has continuously reviewed it and is constantly guiding us all.
The Union Home Minister said that it is very important to neutralize the sources of income of the Left Wing Extremists. The agencies of the Central and State Governments should try to stop this by making a system together. He urged all the Chief Ministers to give priority to the problem of Left Wing Extremism for the next one year so that a permanent solution can be found in this problem. He said that it requires building pressure, increasing speed, and better coordination.
