Home Minister Amit Shah urges Maoist-affected states to rationalise surrender policy, eliminate Left-Wing Extremism

New Delhi: Home Minister Amit Shah said on Monday that incidents of Left Wing Extremism (LWE) have come down but the focus needs to be on eliminating the problem completely as he called upon states to rationalise their surrender policy to mainstream innocent individuals caught in the trap of Maoist violence. [caption id=“attachment_6364881” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File image of Home Minister Amit Shah. News18[/caption] Addressing the review meeting on Left Wing Extremism, Shah said that time has come for security forces to formulate a pro-active strategy to deal with the problem. He urged the states to adopt a focused, time-bound approach to completely eliminate LWE and ensure all-round development of affected regions. Shah said that LWE incidents should be prevented at all costs and innovative measures need to be employed to prevent IED (Improvised Explosive Device) incidents that have caused a significant number of casualties in recent years. Noting that LWE is one of the major internal security challenges faced by the country for the last several decades, he said the Centre would cooperate fully in eliminating the problem. “Left-Wing Extremism has no place in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of ‘New India’,” he said. The minister assured the states that the Centre would cooperate fully in eliminating left-wing extremism. He said LWE organisations were against democratic institutions, use violence to subvert the democratic process and actively seek to prevent development in the least developed regions of the country. “Their strategy is to misguide people and keep them ignorant. India’s fight against those who try to subvert democracy with violence would continue relentlessly,” he said, adding that Modi’s vision of ‘New India’ was based on holistic development. He said there has been a decline in the number of districts affected by Maoist violence and reduction in a number of incidents as well. Shah said there were 2258 incidents of Maoist violence in 2009 and 833 in 2018 and the number of deaths had come down from 1005 in 2009 to 240 in 2018. The number of affected districts had come down from 96 in 2010 to 60 in 2018. Noting that states play a key role in maintaining law and order, he said a synergy between the Centre and states can effectively address Maoism. “Though incidents of LWE violence have come down, the focus needs to be kept to eliminate it completely and efforts need to be maintained by Centre and states at full pace, he said. Shah spoke of a multi-dimensional strategy being followed by the Centre which includes use of advanced technology, sharing intelligence and raising 66 Indian Reserve Battalions (IRBs). He called for capacity building of local forces as they had a crucial role to end Left Wing Extremism and called for steps to check the flow of funds to the organisations. An official release said Shah called upon the states to rationalise their “surrender policy to mainstream innocent individuals caught in the trap of LWE violence”. Referring to the strategy to counter LWE formed in 2015, Shah said it was a multipronged approach consisting of security, development, participatory governance and giving rights for local tribals. Shah said the Central Government was taking steps such as improving road and telecom connectivity, financial inclusion, skill development and education in the Maoist affected areas. He said steps were being taken to improve the pace of opening schools under Eklavya model and ensuring the presence of banking facilities within five kilometres to all citizens. The meeting was attended by several Union Ministers besides chief ministers of Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Odisha, and Uttar Pradesh.