NEW DELHI: The Centre and the states on Monday resolved to jointly fight the Left-Wing Extremism with better surrender policies, with Union Home Minister Amit Shah asserting that the Maoists are against the idea of democracy and will be uprooted, officials said.
The meeting was attended by civil and top police officials of 10 Left Wing Extremism (LWE)-affected states, including Chief Ministers Nitish Kumar (Bihar), Naveen Patnaik (Odisha), Yogi Adityanath (Uttar Pradesh), Kamal Nath (Madhya Pradesh), Raghubar Das (Jharkhand), Bhupesh Baghel (Chhattisgarh) and YS Jaganmohan Reddy (Andhra Pradesh).
“Had a very fruitful meeting with the CMs of the LWE affected states. Discussed several issues related to the security & development of these states. Left-Wing Extremism is against the idea of democracy and under the leadership of PM @narendramodi we are committed to uproot it,” Shah tweeted after the meeting.
MHA officials said Shah asked the states to focus on the need to check flow of funds to Maoist organisations, adding that states were also called upon to rationalise their surrender policy to mainstream the surrendered individuals. The 10 Maoists-hit states are Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha, West Bengal, Bihar, Maharashtra, Telangana, AP, MP and UP.
Addressing the meeting, Nitish said the fight against LWE was a joint responsibility of the Centre as well as the states.
He flagged the need for a change in the existing policy which put the entire financial burden of deployment of central forces in the Naxalism-affected areas on the state governments concerned.
Baghel demanded more funds from the Centre to combat Naxalism and said his government will eliminate the menace through development policies.