New Delhi: The Centre and the Naxalism-affected states Monday resolved to jointly fight the Left Wing Extremism (LWE), with Home Minister Amit Shah declaring that the Maoists are against the idea of democracy and will be uprooted, officials said.
Chief Ministers Nitish Kumar (Bihar), Naveen Patnaik (Odisha), Yogi Adityanath (Uttar Pradesh), Kamal Nath (Madhya Pradesh), Raghubar Das (Jharkhand), Bhupesh Baghel (Chhattisgarh) and YS Jaganmohan Reddy (Andhra Pradesh), besides top police and civil officials of 10 LWE-affected states, attended the meeting where ongoing operations against Naxals and development initiatives were reviewed.
The State Governments and the Centre resolved to fight the Maoist menace jointly, a home ministry official said.
“Had a very fruitful meeting with the CMs of the LWE affected states. Discussed several issues related to the security & development of these states. Left Wing Extremism is against the idea of democracy and under the leadership of PM @narendramodi we are committed to uproot it,” Amit Shah tweeted after the meeting.
Top officials of paramilitary forces and the Home Ministry also attended the meeting, first-of-its-kind after Amit Shah assumed charge as Home Minister about three months ago.
The 10 Maoists-hit states are Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha, West Bengal, Bihar, Maharashtra, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. However, the Chief Ministers of West Bengal, Telengana and Maharashtra did not attend the meeting.
Addressing the meeting, Bihar CM Kumar said the fight against LWE was a joint responsibility of the Centre as well as the states. Kumar flagged the need for a change in the existing policy which put the entire financial burden of deployment of central forces in the Naxalism-affected areas on the State Governments concerned.
Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel demanded more funds from the Centre to combat LWE in the state and said his government will eliminate the menace through development policies as well as providing security and generating trust among the people. He talked about various issues related to security, coordination between states and development.
Uttar Pradesh CM Adityanath said Naxal activities are fully under control in the state and the wheel of development is moving even in the areas affected by the menace. Yogi Adityanath said UP is benefiting from the information exchange with bordering states.
Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das said several top Maoist leaders have surrendered under the popular surrender and rehabilitation policy for the Naxalites to join the mainstream. There has been 60 per cent decline in the Naxal-related incidents in Jharkhand between 2015 and 2019 as compared to 2010-2014, Das informed.
Union Ministers Nitin Gadkari, Nirmala Sitharaman, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Narendra Singh Tomar, Arjun Munda and Mahendra Nath Pandey also joined the meeting later in the day and discussed with the Chief Ministers issues concerning roads, telecommunication, agriculture and others, another official said.
According to Home Ministry statistics, 8,782 cases of Naxal violence were reported during 2009-13 as against 4,969 during 2014-18, a drop by 43.4 per cent. The report also said that 3,326 people, including security force personnel, lost their lives in 2009-13 as against 1,321 in 2014-18, a reduction of 60.4 per cent. It also said that over 1,400 Naxals were killed during 2009-2018. As many as 310 incidents of Naxal violence have been reported in the first five months of this year across the country in which 88 people were killed.
PTI