Amit Shah sets target to end Naxalism in one year from various states
New Delhi. A high-level meeting was held on Sunday under the chairmanship of Union Home Minister Amit Shah. During this, Amit Shah asked the Chief Ministers to spend the next whole year in curbing Naxalism in his state. The two major issues were intensifying operations against Naxalites and stopping funding for them, which was attended by six chief ministers and top officials of four other states. During the meeting, which lasted for nearly three hours, other important issues like action against top Maoist outfits, filling the gap in security, coercive action by the Enforcement Directorate, National Investigation Agency and state police were discussed.
Asked the Chief Ministers to keep it on priority
The Union Home Minister during the meeting said that the fight against Naxalite groups is in the last phase. Now the attacks of Naxalites should be completely stopped. He told all the Chief Ministers present in the meeting to finish this issue on priority for the next year.
The Chief ministers who attended the meeting were Naveen Patnaik (Odisha), K Chandrashekhar Rao (Telangana), Nitish Kumar (Bihar), Shivraj Singh Chouhan (Madhya Pradesh), Uddhav Thackeray (Maharashtra) and Hemant Soren (Jharkhand). were involved.
Senior officers took part in place of Chief Ministers of four states
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Chhattisgarh's Bhupesh Baghel, Andhra Pradesh's YS Jagan Mohan Reddy and Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan did not attend the meeting. Their states were represented by senior officials. On not attending the meeting called by the Home Minister, Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel said that both the Chief Secretary and the DGP have attended the meeting, I could not go because I gave my time to a program long before the meeting was called. Therefore, it should not be seen through a political lens.
Action plan against Naxalites
According to sources, intensifying the operation against Naxalites, filling the gap in security, stopping the funding of militants and concrete action of ED, NIA and state police were discussed in the meeting. Other issues discussed in the meeting include prosecution and prosecution of cases, action against major Maoist organisations, coordination between states, capacity building of state intelligence wing and state special forces, creation of strong police stations.
Home Minister reviews development projects
Sources said the Home Minister reviewed the security situation with the Chief Ministers and officials and the ongoing operations against the Maoists and the ongoing development projects in the Naxal-affected areas. Shah took stock of the requirements of the states, the number of forces deployed to deal with the insurgents, development works like construction of roads, bridges, schools and health centres in Naxal-affected areas. During the meeting, Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said that the Maoist problem in his state has been reduced to only three districts and the meeting discussed what needs to be done to reduce it further.
Discussion on development issues in the affected areas
The development issues discussed in the meeting were road connectivity, expediting the construction of long pending roads, improving the telecom network in Naxal-affected areas by upgrading mobile towers in the poor network zones in the last five years and more. Including a campaign for the installation of mobile towers. The central government is also planning to set up Eklavya schools in these areas and ensure coverage of post offices in all gram panchayats in Maoist-affected districts. Union ministers Ashwini Vaishnav, Giriraj Singh, Arjun Munda and Nityanand Rai also attended the meeting. Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla, Director of Intelligence Bureau Arvind Kumar, senior citizens and police officers from the central and state governments also attended.
Maoist violence in 45 districts
According to the data of the Union Home Ministry, There has been a record reduction
in the incidents of Naxal violence. He said that in 2009 there were 2258 incidents of Naxal violence. Now, these have decreased by 70 per cent, in 2020 this figure was reduced to 665. He said that there has been a decrease of 82 per cent in 2020 as compared to 1005 deaths in 2010 and now it has come down to only 183. The Home Minister said that the number of Naxal affected districts has also come down in comparison to 2010. Then where there used to be a total of 96 such districts, in 2020 the number of such districts has come down to only 53. He said that instead of being satisfied with what we have achieved, the emphasis should be on achieving what is left.