New Delhi: The Centre on Tuesday reiterated that violence related to Left Wing Extremism (LWE) has witnessed a significant reduction and only 176 police stations of 45 districts reported LWE violence in 2022 as compared to a high of 465 police stations in 96 districts in 2010.
“Several parts of the country including some of the southern states have seen Left Wing Extremism (LWE) violence in the past decades. However, to address the LWE menace holistically, the Government of India approved the ‘National Policy and Action Plan to address LWE’ in 2015,” said Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai in the Lok Sabha.
He said that the policy envisages a multi-pronged strategy involving security-related measures, development interventions, ensuring rights and entitlements of local communities, etc. “Steadfast implementation of this policy has resulted in a consistent decline in LWE violence across the nation including the southern region of the country,” Rai said.
“The number of LWE-related violent incidents in the country has come down by 77 percent in 2022 in comparison to the high of 2010. The number of resultant deaths (Security Forces + Civilians) have also reduced by 90 percent from an all-time high of 1005 in 2010 to 98 in 2022,” Rai said.
The geographical spread of violence has also significantly reduced and only 176 police stations of 45 districts reported LWE violence in 2022 as compared to a high of 465 police stations in 96 districts in 2010, he said. “LWE-related violence incidents reported from the southern region declined significantly by 87 percent from a high of 104 incidents in 2010 to just 13 incidents reported from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana only in 2022,” Rai added.
He informed that the improved situation led to the surrender of 435 LWE cadres from 2019 to 2022 including one central committee member.
In another reply to the Lok Sabha, Rai said that the causative factors in most homicide incidents in Central Armed Police Force (CAPFs), Assam Rifles (AR) & National Security Guard (NSG) are generally personal and domestic problems, family issues, depression, and work-related issues. Asserting that there is no trend of increase in the incidents of homicide, Rai informed that 29 homicide incidents have been reported between 2018-2022.
“In 2022, three incidents were reported whereas the number was nine in 2021. Seven incidents took place in 2020 and four incidents were reported in 2019. The number of such homicide cases was six in 2018,” Rai said.
