Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation Amit Shah has said that left-wing extremism will be completely eradicated in the country before March 2026. Addressing a press conference on Saturday in Raipur, Chhattisgarh he said that the fight against left-wing extremism is in its last phase and that now is the time to strike the final blow against LWE with a strong strategy and ruthless approach.
Stating that left-wing extremism is the biggest challenge before the democratic system of the country, Shah said that the Central Government is committed to eradicate this problem and called upon the youth involved in LWE to shun violence.
The Union Minister said that the Modi government is moving ahead with the belief of development shunning the ideology of LWE and is making every effort to bridge the gap of lack of development created due to LWE.
He informed that in 2022, for the first time in four decades, the number of deaths due to left-wing violence has come down below 100. Shah also pointed out that the lowest number of LWE-related violent incidents have been reported between 2022 and 2024. He said that while the highest number of deaths was recorded in 2010 at 1005, this number has come down to 138 in 2023 and stated that limiting LWE is a victory for the country’s security forces and democracy.
Shah highlighted that the ‘Bastariya Battalion’ was raised in CRPF in 2017 in which all the jawans were from the Bastar region and that after taking approval from the Union Cabinet, 400 tribal soldiers from Dantewada, Sukma and Bijapur were recruited in this battalion under a special campaign in 2022.
Further, Shah announced that the Chhattisgarh Government will soon bring a new surrender policy so that the youth will be able to give up arms and join the mainstream of development in an effective manner. He said that the Chhattisgarh government has set a target of March 2025 to achieve 100 per cent saturation of all government schemes. Shah also informed that the Home Ministry and the Chhattisgarh Government will jointly run a campaign to educate the people who have remained illiterate due to left wing extremism.
Earlier in the day, during his visit to Raipur, the Union Home Minister chaired a review meeting on Left Wing Extremism (LWE) and inter-state coordination meeting with Chief Secretaries and Director Generals of Police of Chhattisgarh and neighbouring states.
Strategy for tackling Left Wing Extremism, Inter-State Coordination, capacity building of Security Forces, expeditious investigation and prosecution of LWE cases and comprehensive development of LWE affected areas were some of the important issues discussed during the meeting.
Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Vishnudev Sai, Deputy Chief Minister Vijay Sharma, Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai, Union Home Secretary Govind Mohan, Directors of Intelligence Bureau (IB) and National Investigation Agency (NIA), Director Generals of CRPF, BSF, SSB and ITBP attended the meeting. Chief Secretaries and Director Generals of Police of Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha and Telangana also attended the meeting.
