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Amit Shah holds meet with CMs; sets 1-year deadline to end Maoist violence
The home minister said that the fight against the Maoist groups is now in its final stages and a decisive move must be made to end the insurgencies.
In a bid to end Left Wing Extremism in Maoist-affected states, Union home minister Amit Shah asked chief ministers of the states facing Maoist insurgencies to take steps to ensure that the problem can be eradicated within a year.
He said that there should be a joint strategy to choke the flow of funds to Maoist insurgent groups. Shah was addressing the chief ministers of Odisha, Telangana, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Jharkhand.
The home minister said that the fight against the Maoist groups is now in its final stages and a decisive move must be made to end the insurgencies. He said the death toll due to Left Wing Extremism violence dropped to 200 in a year. He urged all chief ministers to take the issue on priority for the next year so that a permanent solution can be found to the problem.
The meeting was attended by chief ministers Naveen Patnaik (Odisha), K Chandrashekar Rao (Telangana), Nitish Kumar (Bihar), Shivraj Singh Chouhan (Madhya Pradesh), Uddhav Thackeray (Maharashtra) and Hemant Soren (Jharkhand). Union ministers Ashwini Vaishnaw, Giriraj Singh, Arjun Munda and Nityananda Rai also were present.
West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel, Andhra Pradesh chief minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy and Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan did not attend the meeting. These states were represented by either a minister or senior officials.
‘Neutralise their source of income’
Amit Shah said that there should be efforts in neutralising the sources of income of the Maoist groups. He suggested that building pressure, increasing speed and better coordination among Centre and state governments could help achieve this objective.
Shah discussed means of intensifying operations against the Maoists, action against their frontal organisations, filling up the security vacuum, choking the flow of funds to extremists and concerted action by the Enforcement Directorate, the National Investigation Agency and the state police, people familiar with the developments told news agency PTI.
He suggested that regular review meetings be conducted at a chief ministerial, chief secretary level and the DGP level, which could help in resolving several problems. He said the Centre is optimistic of reducing the menace to an insignificant level at the earliest.
Record drop in incidents of violence
Amit Shah highlighted that incidents of Maoist violence have come down by 70% from an all-time high of 2,258 in 2009 to 665 in 2020. He said deaths also dropped by 82% from an all-time high of 1,005 in 2010 to 183 in 2020. Shah said that areas under Maoists' influence also dropped with its geographical spread shrinking from 96 districts in 2010 to just 53 in 2020.
Amit Shah said the elimination of Maoist insurgency is necessary for spreading democracy to every level and developing underdeveloped areas.
“Instead of being satisfied with what we have achieved so far, we need to increase the speed to get what is left,” Shah said.
