Chief Minister Raghubar Das on Tuesday said the State Government is not only working towards making Jharkhand a developed State but also toiling hard to make it a State free of Left Wing extremism. After taking charge in 2014, the Government has devised a multi-dimensional strategy to root out naxalism from the State, he added.
Speaking at the meeting of the LWE affected States in Delhi on Tuesday, the CM said with the efforts of State police and people friendly policies of the Government there is a 60 per cent decrease in the naxal violence related incidents in Jharkhand in the year 2019 in comparison with that of 2015. He said that while the number of civilians, being killed in naxal violence, has gone down to one third, the number of Maoists getting neutralised in encounters has doubled since 2015. He further informed that the number of surrenders has also doubled along with 33 per cent rise in the number of arms and ammunition recovered from the LWE groups.
The CM gave example of Lok Sabha elections 2019, in which no naxal violence was recorded in the State. He further said that the pace of anti-naxal drive that had gone slow during elections has also achieved necessary acceleration in the last two-three months. He said that on the directions of Union Home Ministry SIB has been formed in the State and the body is helping security agencies a lot to gather information about LWE in State.
Das said that the Special Task Force (STF) — Jharkhand Jaguar — has been given special training and equipment to make it self-dependent. Also, the number of Bomb Disposal Squad has been increased to 12, which will help the security forces to detect landmines. The CM said that in last 25 years just 250 ASIs were recruited. However, he said that the government has recently recruited 2,500 ASIs.
The CM further spoke about construction of rural roads in the State that help eliminate LWE from the affected regions. Das said that from 2001 to 2014 22,248 kms rural roads were built, while since 2014 22,865 kms rural roads have been constructed. He said that the rural infrastructure is being developed speedily with the help of Central aid to naxal infested districts.
The CM thanked the Central government for providing para military forces to the State, which have been fighting LWE alongwith the State police. He said that the LWE is taking its last breath in the State and therefore it was important to keep the pressure built against naxalism in the State.
“Currently some paramilitary forces have been sent temporarily to other States and there are plans to send some others permanently. Jharkhand is a mineral rich State, which may prove to be a good place for naxals to reunite and stand up. Our policy of Clear, Hold, Develop demands paramilitary forces in the State.
“Also, due to Assembly elections slated in the State around 275 companies of CPMF would be required here. I, therefore, request to provide the same for free and fair polls,” said the CM.