Shah to review inter-state coordination of Naxal-hit states in Raipur on Saturday

NEW DELHI: Union Home Minister Amit Shah will review the inter-state coordination among the Naxal-affected states at a high-level meeting to be held in Chhattisgarh's Raipur on Saturday.

At a separate meeting on the same day, Shah will also review security and development initiatives in Maoists-hit areas of Chhattisgarh, sources said here on Wednesday.

The chief secretaries and directors general of police of Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, besides top security officials of the central government are expected to attend the inter-state coordination meeting.

During his three-day tour of Chhattisgarh, Shah will also visit the Mahaprabhu Vallabhacharya Ashram in Raipur, review the functioning of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) in the state capital and attend a meeting related to the Ministry of Cooperation.

Earlier, Shah had said after a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government assumed charge in the central Indian state late last year, about 125 Naxals were killed, more than 352 arrested and about 175 had surrendered in just five months.

On April 16, security personnel gunned down 29 Naxals, including some senior cadres, in Chhattisgarh's Kanker district. This was the highest number of fatalities suffered by the red ultras in a single encounter in the history of the state's fight against left-wing extremism.

According to the Union home ministry's data, the number of incidents of left-wing extremism has reduced from 14,862 in the decade from 2004 to 2014 to 7,128 from 2014 to 2023.

The number of deaths of security forces personnel due to left-wing extremism has declined by 72 per cent, from 1,750 in the 2004-to-2014 period to 485 between 2014 and 2023, and the number of civilian deaths has declined by 68 per cent, from 4,285 to 1,383, in the said period.

The number of districts with violence was 96 in 2010. It declined by 53 per cent to 45 in 2022.

Along with this, the number of police stations reporting violence decreased from 465 in 2010 to 176 in 2022.

In the last five years, more than 5,000 post offices were set up in 90 districts that has Maoists presence or where the ultras had presence in the past.

As many as 1,298 bank branches were opened and 1,348 ATMs made operational in the 30 most-affected districts, officials said.

A total of 4,885 mobile towers were constructed at a cost of Rs 2,690 crore in the Naxal-hit areas and 9,356 km of roads were laid at a cost of Rs 10,718 crore.

Local youngsters are being engaged by setting up 121 Eklavya residential schools, 43 ITIs and 38 skill-development centres in the Naxal-affected areas, the officials said.