Shah pledges to completely eliminate Naxal menace as he reviews security situation in violence-hit states

Pledging to "completely" eliminate naxal menace, Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday sought to project huge success in fighting Left Wing Extremism during Narendra Modi government's nine-year rule, saying that there has been a decrease of 52 per cent decline in violent incidents between May 2014 and April 2023 compared to a similar period of UPA government from 2005.

Chairing a meeting of Chief Ministers and officials of ten naxal infested states, Shah said there has been a decline of 69 per cent in deaths related to Maoist violence, 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.

While there were 14,862 incidents between May 2005 and April 2014, government statistics showed, it had come down to 7,128 in the next nine years. Naxal violence related deaths came down 6,035 to 1,868, security personnels' death from 1,750 to 485 and civilian deaths from 4,285 to 1,383 during this period.

The number of districts which were impacted by naxalism were 96 in 2010 and it came down to 45 in 2022 (53 per cent decline) while police stations reporting naxal violence came down from 465 to 176 (62 per cent decline).

He said the Modi government has succeeded in curbing Left Wing Extremism in the last few years and now this fight has reached a "decisive phase" and that successes have been achieved against it in 2022 and 2023.

"This is the year of taking resolution to completely eliminate Left Wing Extremism in the next two years....We have established 195 new camps of paramilitary forces, 44 more new camps will be established," he said adding deployment of paramilitary forces against left-wing extremism, rationalisation of development and setting up camps in vacuum areas are the priorities of the Modi government.

"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. 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," he said.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) are working closely with state agencies to attack the financing of Left Wing Extremism. All 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, he said.

Shah added, the Modi government had increased the ex-gratia amount for victims of Left Wing Extremism from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 20 lakh in 2017, now it has been further increased to Rs 40 lakh.