Achieved great success in Maoist-affected states in three years: Rajnath

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday said the Narendra Modi government has achieved great success in the Maoist-affected states in its three years tenure, resulting 25 per cent decline in incidents, 65 per cent rise in elimination of ultras and a 185 per cent rise surrenders.

Noting that the government is fully determined to tackle the LWE (Left-Wing Extremism) danger for which in January 2015 it had launched national policy and action plan to tackle the menace, he said that as "a result, there has been a decline of 25 per cent in LWE related incidents of violence.

"Ccasualties to security forces dropped by as much as 42 per cent during the period from May 2014 to April 2017 as compared to May 2011 to April 2014," said Rajnath Singh, addressing the media on three years of the Modi government.

He said the forces meanwhile achieved great success in the elimination and surrender of insurgents as per the figures.

"This is our big achievement and I believe the security agencies will achieve success after assimilating new operation technique SAMADHAN to fight LWE."

During a review meeting of affected states on May 8, he had given the technique, an acronym for smart leadership, aggressive strategy, motivation and training, actionable intelligence, dashboard-based key performance indicators and key result areas, harnessing technology, action plan for each theatre and no access to financing.

The Minister said the aid amount for the affected states has been raised from Rs 575 crore to Rs 675 crore, construction of 45 police stations in the affected areas has been expedited while 307 new police stations have been set up in the past three years.

"Bastaria Battalion has been raised in Chhattisgarh to fight the left wing rebels in which 242 women and 743 scheduled tribe candidates have been recruited. Besides, the government has extended its skill development scheme to 13 new districts in 2016 to provide employment to the youth residing there."

He also mentioned that 1,391 km of roads were constructed and funds sanctioned for another 5,412 kms, while a number of cellphone towers, banks and ATMs, post offices and even an airport at Jagdalpur were being set up in the area to increase connectivity and facilies

Rajnath Singh also said that 2016 has witnessed the lowest insurgency incidents in the last 20 years.

"It (incidents) reduced from 824 in 2014 to 484 in 2016. The number of incidents was 574 in 2015 which was the lowest since 1997 and has further reduced in 2016. The number of civilian casualties in the northeast has also come down drastically in the last three years."

In another push to border infrastructure and developmental works, the Minister said that the government has sanctioned Rs 5,188 crore projects in the last three years, of which Rs 2,138 crore has been released for projects on the borders with Bangladesh and Pakistan, including 200 km of fencing, 430 km of border roads, floodlights on 647 km and 110 composite border outposts.

On the India-China border, out of 27 roads sanctioned in 2008, eight have been completed during 2014-16 while another nine roads are due to be completed by this year end, he said.

--IANS

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