HYDERABAD: Incidents related to Left Wing Extremism (LWE) have seen a sharp decline in the Telangana region ever since a separate State was formed in 2014. According to an Annual Report Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) 2018-19, 13 violent incidents and two deaths related to LWE were reported in Telangana between January 2018 and March 2019. Meanwhile, the situation was similar across the country with a declining number of incidents LWE.
Sources say, resolute implementation of the National Policy and Action Plan by the government has resulted in significant improvement in the LWE scenario across the country. The last five years have seen a significant decline in LWE violence while the geographical spread of LWE has also shrunk considerably. This declining trend continued in 2018 as well, the MHA report noted.
There has been an overall reduction of 26.7 per cent in the violent incidents (1,136 to 833) and 39.5 per cent (397 to 240) in deaths related to LWE since end of 2013. When compared to 2017, the year 2018 saw a decline of 8.3 per cent (908 to 833) in the incidents of violence and a decline of 8.7 per cent (263 to 240) in the number of deaths. The casualties in security forces also declined by 10.7 per cent (75 to 67) and the number of LWE cadres eliminated went up by 65.4 per cent (136 to 225).
With 392 violent incidents and 153 deaths, Chhattisgarh remains the most affected State, followed by Jharkhand where 205 incidents and 43 deaths were reported. Bihar was third with 59 incidents and 15 deaths, followed by Odisha with 75 incidents and 12 deaths, and Maharashtra with 75 incidents and 12 deaths.
While Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand, together, accounted for a majority (71.7 per cent) of incidents of violence and deaths (81.7 per cent). At 9 per cent each, Odisha and Maharashtra were tied and followed by Bihar with 7.1 per cent reported incidents. Telangana, AP and MP, reported less than 4 per cent of violent incidents.