In a bid to combat left-wing extremism (LWE), the Centre has been undertaking several development initiatives with special thrust on expansion of road networks, improving telecom connectivity, upskilling youths, setting up ATMs and post offices, the Lok Sabha was informed on Tuesday.
Minister of State in the Ministry of Home Affairs Nityanand Rai said that besides the flagship programmes in the last five years to bridge the socio-economic divide in the most LWE affected areas and bring down violence, the government had taken specific steps like adding 13234 km of road network to improve connectivity in those areas.
He said that to improve telecom connectivity, 2343 mobile towers are installed in phase-I of the Mobile Tower Project with a focus on the most affected states of Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, adding that under phase-II of the project, 2542 mobile towers are under installation. The minister was responding to a question by Parliamentarian Dr Dhal Singh Bisen on the status of naxalite activities and violence in the wake of the various actions taken and activities launched by the central government during the last five years.
The minister informed that for financial inclusion of the local populace in LWE affected areas, 927 bank branches were opened and 27513 banking correspondents posted in the 30 most LWE affected districts since April 2015. Also, 4903 new post offices in 90 districts were opened during the last eight years.
For skill development, 43 ITIs and 38 Skill Development Centres were set up to impart quality education in tribal blocks of LWE affected districts and 125 Eklavya Model Residential Schools were made functional in 90 LWE affected districts. Most of these model projects, besides the ongoing flagships projects, were initiated in Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra.
He said that the steadfast implementation of this policy has resulted in consistent decline in LWE violence across the nation. The number of LWE related violent incidents have come down by 76% in 2022 in comparison to the high of 2010. The number of resultant deaths (security forces + civilians) has also reduced by 90% from an all-time high of 1005 in 2010 to 98 in 2022, he said.
The minister said that though as per the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution of India, subjects of Police and Public order are with the state governments, while the Centre has been supplementing the efforts of states affected by left wing extremism.
To address the issue of LWE holistically, a National Policy and Action Plan was approved in 2015. It envisaged a multi-pronged strategy involving security related measures, development interventions and ensuring rights and entitlements of local communities, Rai said.
On the security front, the Centre assists the LWE affected states government by providing Central Armed Police Forces battalions, training, provision of funds through schemes like Security Related Expenditure (SRE) and Special Infrastructure Scheme (SIS), funds for modernization of state police forces, equipment and arms, sharing of intelligence, construction of fortified police stations etc, he added.