Govt to reduce the number of Maoist affected districts

The government is planning to reduce the number of districts affected by Maoists by about a fifth. 106 districts have been identified as maoist affected. Out of these, the government may remove almost 20 districts from the list. These 106 districts span over 10 states which are Bihar, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Telangana, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. These

states are described as left wing extremism (LWE) and constitute the ‘red corridor’. Of these, 44 districts are considered to be most affected. LWE features constitute the district’s violence profile, an assessment of the kind of logistical and other support provided to the armed Maoist cadres by their sympathizers and overground workers and the positive changes taken place due to development work in these districts. The Expenditure Finance Committee (EFC) has given a green signal for the construction of road project in the 44 worst affected districts. The total cost of the project is estimated to be Rs. 117.3 billion. The project would include construction of 5412 kms road and 216 bridges. Respective states have been communicated the names of the 20 districts that are to be removed from the list and the reasons behind the same. The names of these districts have not been made public because of the sensitivities of the states. The fear among the states that these districts belongs to is that, once the district is taken off the list, the financial aid of Rs. 300 million which is given to the districts for developmental work will stop. The 20 districts span over 142 police stations. The total number of Maoist affected areas, police station wise comes to 762. Further, 14 additional battalion of central armed forces have been sent to these areas since the central government came into power in 2014. Now, there are a total of 104 battalion deployed in LWE affected areas. The districts of Bankura, West Midnapore, Purulia and Birbhum districts of West Bengal have not seen any incident of Maoist related activities in the last four years. Still, two battalions of central armed forces are deployed in these areas because the state has opposed to withdrawal of these forces. If these forces are allowed to be withdrawn, they could be deployed elsewhere where they are needed.

Govt to reduce the number of Maoist affected districts

20 districts to be dropped from the list