NEW DELHI: BJP vice-president Vinay Sahasrabuddhe on Wednesday released a report which claimed that demonetisation significantly curbed Maoist violence in the country, including Chhattisgarh.
The report claimed that Naxal violence came down by 20 per cent in 2017 compared to 2015, while the arrest and surrender of the Maoists went up by 55 per cent.
The report, prepared by Public Policy Research Centre headed by Sahasrabuddhe, stated that “the decision to phase out high-value currency notes choked the financial reserves of the Naxalites”.
It noted that incidents of Maoist violence, which stood at 466 in 2015, came down to 395 in 2016 and 373 in 2017. In 2017, 796 Naxals were arrested as against 512 in 2015.
“Lack of resources at the disposal of the Naxals caused by demonetisation gave an opportunity to the security forces to bring the Naxalites in the mainstream after surrendering them with arms,” stated the report.
PPRC researcher Mani Bhushan Kumar Jha said demonetisation forced the Maoists to come out to villagers for supplies of essentials, which helped the security forces beef up local intelligence and consequently helped in either arresting or facilitating their surrender.
The report pointed out that the number of civilian deaths came down to 188 in 2017 against 282 in 2013, while 150 Naxals were killed in 2017 against 100 in 2015. It added that 1,888 Naxals were arrested in 2017 against 1,397 in 2015.
The number of security personnel killed came down from 115 in 2015 to 75 in 2017, the report claimed.