NEW DELHI: BJP vice president Vinay Sahashrabuddhe on Wednesday released a report which claimed that the demonetisation significantly curbed the Maoist violence in the country, including Chattishgarh.
The report stated that while naxal violence came down by 20 per cent in 2017 against the figures for 2015, while the same for arrests stood at 55 per cent.
The report prepared by Public Policy Research Centre (PPRC) headed by Sahashrabuddhe claimed to have conducted extensive study to map the impact of demonetisation on the Maoists, and noted that 'the decision to phase out high value currencies choked the financial reserves of the naxalites'.
The report noted that the Maoist incidents which stood at 466 in 2015 came down to 395 in 2016 and 373 in 2017. Also, it added that 796 were arrested in 2017 against 512 in 2015.
"There was a rise of 55 per cent in the arrests and surrender of the naxals in 2017 compared to 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.
The PPRC researcher Mani Bhushan Kumar Jha said that demonetisation forced the Maoists to come out to villagers for supplies of essentials, including salt, which helped the security forces to beef up local intelligence and consequently helped in either arresting or facilitating their surrenders.
The report also mentioned that several front organisations , including Kabir Kala Manch, were used by the Maoists to launder invalidated currencies. "Such organisations came under the scanner of the security forces, which resulted in their blacklisting consequently," said the report, while adding that demonetisation complimented the surrender and rehabilitation policy of Chhatishgarh.
The report also 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 1888 naxals were arrested in 2017 against 1397 in 2015.
The report also noted that the number of security personnel killed also came down from 115 in 2015 to 75 in 2017.