LWE would be eliminated in next 2 years: Amit Shah

New Delhi, Oct 6: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday said that success has been achieved in curbing Left Wing Extremism (LWE) in the last few years, adding that LWE will be eliminated in the next two years.

Chairing a meeting to review the security situation in LWE-affected States, Shah also said that the year 2022 witnessed the lowest number of incidents of violence and deaths in Maoist-hit areas in the last four decades. 

In his address, the Minister said that under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, success has been achieved in curbing Leftist extremism in the last few years and now this fight has reached a decisive phase. 

He said that with the determination of the Prime Minister and the cooperation of all the states affected by the LWE, major successes have been achieved against it in 2022 and 2023. 

Shah asserted that "this is the year of taking resolution to completely eliminate Left Wing Extremism (LWE) in the next two years". 

Shah said that vacuum areas have been shrinking since 2019, and we have established 195 new camps of CAPFs, 44 more new camps will be established. 

He said that the deployment of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) against LWE, rationalization of development and setting up camps in vacuum areas are the priorities of the Modi government. He also asserted that there is a need to maintain constant surveillance in the areas liberated from LWE so that this problem does not revive there again. He said that there is also a need to monitor that left wing extremists from areas where this problem has been eliminated, do not take shelter in other states. Shah said that the Modi government has adopted a policy of "zero tolerance" against LWE since 2014. 

"As a result of our zero tolerance policy, the lowest level of violence and deaths has been recorded in 2022 in last 4 decades," the Minister said. 

"There has been a decline of more than 52 per cent in Left Wing Extremism related violence, 69 per cent in deaths, 72 per cent in security forces deaths and 68 per cent in civilian deaths between 2014 and 2023 compared to the period from 2005 to 2014," Shah said. 

Union Home Minister said that the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) are working closely with all state agencies to attack the financing of LWE. 

He added that all the affected states need to make efforts by forming a joint team of civil and police administration to dismantle the network of financial support of LWE. 

He further said that the Modi government had increased the ex-gratia amount for victims of LWE from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 20 lakh in 2017, now it has been further increased to Rs 40 lakh.

Highlighting the work of the government in the LWE areas, Shah said that the government is taking several steps to speed up the development in LWE-affected states and special attention is being given to areas like road construction, telecommunication, financial inclusion, skill development and education. 

Shah said the government has launched more than 14,000 projects under the Special Central Assistance (SCA) scheme to accelerate development in the districts most affected by LWE. 

"More than 80 per cent of these projects have been completed and Rs 3,296 crore has been released to LWE-affected states under the scheme," the Minister said. 

He said under the Special Infrastructure Scheme (SIS), projects worth Rs 992 crore have been sanctioned for the construction of Fortified Police Stations, strengthening of State Intelligence branches and Special Forces of LWE-affected states. 

In the last nine years, the Modi government has increased the Security Related Expenditure (SRE) by more than double in comparison to the earlier period, he added.