Amit Shah stresses need for action against financing of Left Wing Extremism

PTI, Aug 25, 2024, 11:40 AM IST

Raipur: Union Home Minister Amit Shah has underlined the necessity to give more impetus to the campaign against Left Wing Extremism (LWE).

Financing of LWE and the supply of weapons to Naxalites must be stopped, he said on Saturday at a review meeting on LWE and inter-state coordination in Nava Raipur, attended by senior officials of seven Naxal-affected states.

Strategy for tackling LWE, inter-state coordination, capacity building of security forces, expeditious investigation and prosecution of Naxal cases, and comprehensive development of Maoist-hit areas were some of the issues discussed during the meeting, an official said here.

Addressing the meeting, Shah said that the campaign against LWE was now at a decisive stage and his government was committed to completely eradicating the menace before March 2026.

“We now need to work with twice the speed and intensity that was there at the beginning of the operations against Naxalism, only then can this problem be completely eradicated from our country,” he said.

Chief Secretaries of Naxal-affected states should hold a review meeting on the development works in LWE-affected areas every fortnight. Unless anti-Naxal operations are monitored continuously, we will not be able to achieve the desired outcome, he said.

The surrender policy for Naxals should be flexible but efforts should be made to ensure that it is not misused, the home minister further said.

The states should hand over the investigation of inter-state cases related to Naxalism to the National Investigation Agency, Shah said.

“We will have to fight against those who support the ideology of leftist extremism and convey our views to all sections of society with humility and firmness,” he said.

Among those present were Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai and Deputy CM Vijay Sharma, Union Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai, and Chief Secretaries and Director Generals of Police (DGPs) of Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Maharashtra.

Union Home Secretary Govind Mohan, Directors of the Intelligence Bureau and NIA, Director Generals of CRPF, BSF, SSB and ITBP also took part in the meeting, the official added.