New Delhi: Stating that there was a significant decline in violent incidents of Left Wing extremism from 2014 to 2023 as compared to 2005 to 2014, Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday reiterated that Naxals will be completely uprooted in the next two years. Under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, success has been achieved in curbing Leftist extremism in the last few years and now this fight has reached a decisive phase. Following the cooperation of all the states affected by Left Wing extremism, major successes have been achieved against it in 2022 and 2023, said Shah. “Left Wing extremism will be completely uprooted in the next two years,” said Shah.
Shah, along with the Chief Ministers and Deputy Chief Ministers and other officials concerned of Left Wing extremism affected states, chaired a review meeting on Left Wing extremism in New Delhi. Union Ministers, National Security Advisor, Union Home Secretary, Director Generals of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs), Secretaries to the Central government, Chief Secretaries of States, Director Generals of Police and other senior officials also attended the meeting.
Stating that vacuum areas have been shrinking since 2019, Shah said, “We have established 195 new camps of CAPFs, and 44 more new camps will be established. Deployment of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) against Left Wing extremism, rationalisation of development and setting up camps in vacuum areas are the priorities of the Modi government.”
He said that there is a need to maintain constant surveillance in the areas liberated from Left Wing extremism so that this problem does not revive there again. He said that there is also a need to monitor that left-wing extremists from areas where this problem has been eliminated do not take shelter in other states.
“Our government has adopted a policy of zero tolerance against Left Wing extremism since 2014. As a result of our zero-tolerance policy, the lowest level of violence and deaths has been recorded in 2022 in the last four decades. There has been a decline of more than 52 per cent in Left Wing extremism related violence, 69 per cent in deaths, 72 per cent in security forces deaths, and 68 per cent in civilian deaths between 2014 and 2023 compared to the period from 2005 to 2014,” Shah said.
The Union Home Minister said that the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) are working closely with state agencies to attack the financing of Left Wing extremism. He said that all the affected states need to make efforts by forming a joint team of civil and police administration to dismantle the network of financial support of Left Wing extremism.
“The Modi government had increased the ex gratia amount for the victims of Left Wing Extremism from Rs 5 lakhs to Rs 20 lakhs in 2017, now it has been further increased to Rs 40 lakhs,” said Shah. Stating that his government is taking several steps to speed up the development in Left Wing extremism-affected states, Shah said that special attention is being given to areas like road construction, telecommunication, financial inclusion, skill development and education.
“The Central government has launched more than 14,000 projects under the Special Central Assistance (SCA) scheme to accelerate development in the districts most affected by Left Wing extremism. More than 80 per cent of these projects have been completed and Rs 3,296 crore has been released to Left Wing extremism-affected states under the scheme,” said Shah.
He said under the Special Infrastructure Scheme (SIS), projects worth Rs 992 crore have been sanctioned for the construction of Fortified Police Stations, strengthening of State Intelligence branches and Special Forces of Left Wing Extremism-affected states. “In the last nine years, the Modi government has increased the Security Related Expenditure (SRE) by more than double in comparison to the earlier period,” the Home Minister stated.
