Number of casualties in Naxal violence sees decline

According to official statistics, Naxal violence claimed the lives of 287 civilians and 113 security force personnel this year till November 30. In 2011 and 2010, the casualty figures were 611 and 1005 respectively.

Incidentally, West Bengal, which had 223 civilian casualties in 2010 and 43 in 2011, reported no civilian death in 2012, the home ministry said.

Thirty-five security personnel were killed during 2010, two in 2011 and none in 2012 in the state.

The CPI (Maoist) was said to be the largest Left-wing extremist group operating in India and responsible for almost 80 per cent of the total Naxal violence reported during the current year.

The violence also left 65 CPI Maoists dead this year, as compared to 96 in 2011 and 166 in 2010.

Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand reported high number of casualties, compared to other states. While civilian casualties in Jharkhand were 132, 149 and 130 for 2010, 2011 and 2012 respectively, the number of security personnel killed in that period were 25, 33 and 29.

However, Chhattisgarh saw a fall in the number of civilian deaths this year. The count of 57 is much lower than the casualties in 2010 and 2011 which stood at 171 and 124 respectively.

The figures also show that though there was not a single attack on a school building this year, seven incidents of attacks on mobile towers and one attack on a panchayat building were reported.

According to the Home Ministry, to combat Naxal violence, the government has adopted a two-pronged holistic approach that supplements the efforts of state governments through security-related and development-related interventions.

In security intervention, apart from directly deploying central armed police forces, the government provides assistance for capacity building by the states through schemes like the security-related expenditure, special infrastructure and construction or strengthening of fortified police stations.

On the development front, the central government is implementing special schemes for Naxal-affected areas like the Integrated Action Plan (IAP), Road Requirement Plan-I etc, it said.

"It is the belief of the government that a combination of calibrated police action, focused development efforts and improvements in governance will yield the desired results against Left-wing extremism," a Home Ministry official said.

CPI (Maoist) has been included in the schedule of terrorist organisations along with all its formations and front organisations on June 22, 2009 under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 by the central government. Bihar, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and Odisha have also banned CPI (Maoist).