HM Amit Shah closer to victory over LWE menace
Home Minister Amit Shah’s efforts to weed out the left-wing extremism (LWE) are yielding encouraging results as the number of incidents and related deaths involving LWE violence are constantly on the wane.
In fact, his determined fight against the menace appears to be in the final stage of victory.
Since he took over, Shah has been supervising of implementation of the policies outlined in the National Policy and Action Plan of 2015 on a regular basis. This has resulted in a consistent decline in LWE violence across the nation. The policy envisages a multi-pronged strategy involving security-related measures, development interventions, ensuring rights and entitlements of local communities, etc.
Shah also initiated tough steps through NIA and ED to block the financial sources of LWE groups. Official data shows that the number of LWE-related violent incidents has come down by 77% in 2022 in comparison to 2010. In sync with that the number of resultant deaths, combining security forces and civilians) has also reduced by 90 % from an all-time high of 1005 in 2010 to 98 in 2022.
The geographical spread of violence has significantly reduced and only 176 police stations of 45 districts reported LWE violence in 2022 as compared to a high of 465 Police Stations in 96 districts in 2010.
The decline in the geographical spread is also reflected in the reduced number of districts covered under the Security Related Expenditure (SRE) Scheme. The number of SRE districts reduced from 126 to 90 in April 2018 and further to 70 in July 2021. At his ministry, Shah takes review meetings regularly to review LWE scenarios. Meetings and visits by other senior officersare being undertaken to ensure expeditious completion and monitoring of the works in various areas induced by the LWEs under various schemes.
To weed out the menace, the government assists in capacity building of LWE- affected states through various schemes of the Home Ministry and schemes of other line ministries. Special emphasis is laid on the expansion of the road network, improving
telecommunications, educational empowerment and financial inclusion in LWE- affected areas. Under Shah, the Home Ministry works in close coordination with all other ministries to ensure the optimum implementation of these schemes in LWE-
affected areas.
