Govt to convene meet on Naxal violence on May 24

New Delhi, May 17: As Naxal violence continued unabated, the Centre will convene a meeting of top civil and police officers of 10 Maoist-hit states on May 24 to discuss the security situation in the affected areas.

Home Minister Rajnath Singh will chair the day-long meeting and Chief Secretaries and DGPs of Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Telangana, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh will attend it.

The meeting will review the situation in the Maoist-hit states and deliberate on how to make the ongoing anti-Naxal operations more successful, a Home Ministry official said.

While 106 districts in the 10 states are affected by Maoist activities in varying degrees, 35 districts in seven states are the most affected. The official said the security forces have achieved greater success in tackling the Maoists in recent times and there was 30 per cent decline of Naxal violence this year.

Altogether, 76 Naxal cadres were killed between January and April this year in comparison to 15 killed in the corresponding period of 2015. As many as 665 Maoists were arrested and 639 surrendered in the first four months of 2016 and 435 Naxal were arrested and 134 others surrendered in the corresponding period of 2015.

Maoist violence saw 226 deaths in 1,088 incidents of violence perpetrated by the rebels in entire 2015. In 2015, of the 226 deaths, 168 were civilians and 58 were security personnel. As many as 89 Maoists were also killed and 1,668 were arrested and 570 cadres surrendered before authorities during the year.

According to a recent Parliamentary Standing Committee report, Naxal activities continue to be a matter of concern with 35 districts in seven states being badly-hit. "Left Wing Extremism (LWE) remains an area of concern for internal security of the country.

"CPI (Maoist) continues to be the most potent among the various LWE outfits in the country and accounts for more than 80 per cent of total LWE violence incidents and resultant deaths," the report said.

PTI