Amit Shah to analyse security in Maoist-hit areas today: 10 states in review
In addition to taking a brief on the security situation, home minister Amit Shah is also likely to review development works in these Maoist-affected areas that are being undertaken by the respective state governments.
Amit Shah, Union minister of home affairs, will be chairing a high-level meeting on Sunday with the chief ministers of 10 states to review the situation in Maoist-affected areas. The Union home minister will meet the chief ministers and hold a detailed discussion on the Maoist-affected areas in their respective states – including a review of the security situation in the fringe areas and the ongoing counter-insurgency operations against the Maoists.
According to officials familiar with the development, those who have been invited for the day-long physical meeting at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi are the chief ministers of Chhattisgarh (Bhupesh Baghel), Maharashtra (Uddhav Thackeray), Jharkhand (Hemant Soren), Odisha (Naveen Patnaik), West Bengal (Mamata Banerjee), Telangana (K Chandrashekar Rao), Andhra Pradesh (Jagan Mohan Reddy), Madhya Pradesh (Shivraj Singh Chouhan), and Kerala (Pinarayi Vijayan).
A media report, however, indicated that Andhra Pradesh chief minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy might be missing from the meeting on Sunday after sustaining an injury. Andhra Pradesh home minister Mekathoti Sucharita is expected to travel to New Delhi in his stead to represent her state in the meeting with Amit Shah.
In addition to taking a brief on the security situation, home minister Amit Shah is also likely to review development works in these Maoist-affected areas—with detailed discussions on the construction of roads, bridges, schools, and health centres—that the respective state governments are carrying out in these violence-hit regions to encourage locals and villagers to return to a life of normalcy.
Maoist violence in India has reduced considerably across the country and the menace is now prevalent in just about 45 districts, according to Union home ministry data. However, as many as 90 districts in the country are considered to be ‘Maoist-affected’ and are covered under the Security Related Expenditure Scheme of the ministry. Maoist violence, also called ‘Left Wing Extremism (LWE)’, was reported in 61 districts in 2019 and only about 45 districts in 2020.
Around 380 security personnel, 1,000 civilians and 900 Maoists have been killed in different instances of violence in LWE-affected areas from 2015 till 2020. A total of about 4,200 Maoists have also surrendered during the same period, according to the data.