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Chhattisgarh CM looking to attract investments as LWE declines
Chhattisgarh chief minister Vishnu Deo Sai, along with a team of top state bureaucrats, are set to meet industrialists and investors in the Capital on Monday
Chhattisgarh chief minister Vishnu Deo Sai, along with a team of top state bureaucrats, are set to meet industrialists and investors in the Capital on Monday with an aim to boost the state’s economic and industrial growth in view of the declining cases of left wing extremism (LWE), officials aware of the matter said.
The development comes days after Union home minister Amit Shah announced that the Centre and the Chhattisgarh government are committed to eliminating Maoism from the state by March 31, 2026 and making the state an industrial and tourism hub. Earlier, two out of the seven districts in the Maoist-infested Bastar division — the Bastar district that houses the district headquarters of Jagdalpur, and Kondagaon, which houses headquarters of the Kondagaon district — were declared free from the scourge of Left-wing extremism, roughly five decades after they were first put on the infamous list.
“The CM has reached New Delhi and will be meeting the industrialists and investors on Monday. The CM will present Chhattisgarh’s new industrial policy 2024-2030, which will include several investor-friendly provisions designed to attract investments into the state. The new policy focuses on modern sectors like iron ore, steel, green hydrogen, and artificial intelligence, offering special incentives for these industries. The CM will also highlight investment opportunities in regions like Bastar and Naya Raipur, where strong infrastructure and supportive schemes are being developed for businesses,” an official in the chief minister’s office said on Sunday.
The Bastar division is often considered the nerve centre of the Maoist insurgency in India. It comprises seven districts — Bastar, Dantewada, Bijapur, Kanker, Narayanpur, Kondagaon, and Sukma — of which Narayanpur houses the Abujhmad, a vast expanse of uncharted forest that serves as a hideout and training centre for the extremists. But over the last 12 months, the government embarked on a fierce offensive against the Maoists, constructing roads and setting up camps in districts and areas that were once plagued by LWE, and gunning down at least 217 insurgents in encounters — as part of the government’s goal to eliminate Maoism by March 2026.
In 2024, one Maoist-related violence was reported in Kondagaon, while the Bastar district has not reported any such violence over the last two years. On December 3, when Sai met Shah at his residence in New Delhi, the former informed Shah that the two districts were now free of Maoists — all underground and overground workers have either surrendered, been killed over the years, or fled from their hideouts in the two districts.
According to the official quoted above, during the meeting, the CM will showcase the potential for the tourism sector in Bastar. “Recently during his visit to Bastar, the HM had said that the beauty of Bastar surpasses even Kashmir. Now that the forces are on the offensive and Naxalism will soon be a thing of the past, the idea is to make Bastar region a tourism hub. People could not visit the region because of the LWE problem all these years,” he said.
He added that some of the sectors being pushed for investment in the region will include companies with interest in setting up BPOs, solar projects, manufacturing units for EV kits and semiconductor chips.
During his visit to the state on November 15, Shah had reiterated that while Chhattisgarh would be free from Maoism, Bastar would achieve 100% saturation in development, peace, tourism and implementation of all government schemes.
The next 15 months are critical for forces engaged in countering Maoism because the Centre has vowed to get rid of LWE by March 2026. Based on this goal, security forces have launched an aggressive campaign in which during the last one year —287 Maoists were neutralised, approximately 1,000 were arrested, and 837 surrendered.
