Union home minister Amit Shah on Tuesday chaired a parliamentary committee meeting on ‘Left Wing Extremism (LWE)’ and stressed that “there is no place for violence and LWE ideas in self-reliant ‘New India’ under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi”.
Shah also spoke of how security and development in LWE-affected areas are the main focus of the central government and that several flagship schemes are being launched to bolster development.
“The construction of 17,462 km of roadways have been sanctioned to improve road connectivity, out of which work on about 11,811 km has been completed. Apart from this, to improve mobile connectivity, 2,343 mobile towers have been installed in the first phase, during the last eight years, under the Mobile Tower Project. In view of the development of technology, approval has been given to upgrade them to 4G. Apart from this, 2,542 new mobile towers are being installed in the second phase,” according to a statement by the home ministry.
Shah also said the government has adopted a zero tolerance strategy, to deal with LWE, comprising three pillars – strategy to curb extremists’ violence with a ruthless approach, better coordination between Centre and states, and eliminating support for the extremists through public participation in development.
The minister said that the strategy was foolproof and had catalysed in curbing left wing terrorism in the past eight years, according to the statement.
Shah also shared data to show how there has been a drop in LWE instances ever since the Modi government came to power.
“76% reduction in violent incidents related to Left Wing Extremism is observed in 2022 in comparison to 2010. The number of civilian and security personnel who lost their lives in Left Wing Extremism incidents has come down by 90% to 98 in 2022 in comparison to the figure of 1,005 in 2010 and number of Left Wing Extremism-affected districts reduced to 45 from earlier 90,” the statement said.
“Number of districts under the Security Related Expenditure (SRE) scheme reduced from 126 to 90 in April 2018 and further reduced to 70 since July 2021. Number of districts most affected by LWE has reduced from 35 to 30 in April 2018 and further reduced to 25 since July 2021,” it added.
The meeting was attended by key members of the ministry, including Union minister of state for home affairs Nityanand Rai, Ajay Kumar Mishra and Nishith Pramanik.
Members of the committee from both Houses of Parliament, Union home secretary Ajay Bhalla, officials of the Border Security Force and Central Reserve Police Force were also among those who attended the meeting.
