A high-level meeting chaired by Union Home Minister Amit Shah with Chief Ministers of the Maoist-affected States on Monday decided to jointly fight the Left Wing Extremism. The meeting reviewed the ongoing operations against Naxals and development initiatives in the remote areas.
Chief Ministers Nitish Kumar (Bihar), Naveen Patnaik (Odisha),Yogi Adityanath (Uttar Pradesh), Kamal Nath (Madhya Pradesh), Raghubar Das (Jharkhand), Bhupesh Baghel (Chhattisgarh) and YS Jaganmohan Reddy (Andhra Pradesh), besides top police and civil officials of 10 Left Wing Extremism (LWE)-affected States, attended the meeting where ongoing operations against Naxals and development initiatives were reviewed.
“Had a very fruitful meeting with the CMs of the LWE affected States. Discussed several issues related to the security & development of these States. Left Wing Extremism is against the idea of democracy and under the leadership of PM @narendramodi we are committed to uproot it,” Shah tweeted after the meeting.
Top officials of paramilitary forces and the Home Ministry also attended the meeting, first-of-its-kind after Shah assumed charge as the Home Minister about three months ago. Senior police officials from the 10 Maoists-hit States are Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha, West Bengal, Bihar, Maharashtra, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh were also present in the high-level meeting.
Addressing the meeting, Bihar CM Kumar said the fight against Left Wing Extremism was a joint responsibility of the Centre as well as the States. Kumar flagged the need for a change in the existing policy which put the entire financial burden of deployment of Central forces in the Naxalism-affected areas on the State Governments concerned.
Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel demanded more funds from the Centre to combat Left Wing Extremism in the State and said his Government will eliminate the menace through development policies as well as providing security and generating trust among the people.
Uttar Pradesh CM Adityanath said Naxal activities are fully under control in the State and the wheel of development is moving even in the areas affected by the menace. Adityanath said the State is benefiting from the information exchange with bordering States.
Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das said several top Naxal leaders have surrendered under the popular surrender and rehabilitation policy for the Naxalites to join the mainstream.
There has been 60 per cent decline in the Naxal-related incidents in Jharkhand between 2015 and 2019 as compared to 2010-2014, he said.
Union Ministers Nitin Gadkari, Nirmala Sitharaman, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Narendra Singh Tomar, Arjun Munda and Mahendra Nath Pandey also joined the meeting later in the day and discussed with the Chief Ministers issues concerning roads, telecommunication, agriculture and others.
According to Home Ministry statistics, 8,782 cases of Naxal violence were reported during 2009-13 as against 4,969 during 2014-18, a reduction of 43.4 per cent. As many as 3,326 people, including security force personnel, lost their lives in 2009-13 as against 1,321 in 2014-18, a reduction of 60.4 per cent, the Ministry said.