Indian Home Minister Rajnath Singh carried out a review of the Left Wing Extremism (LWE) situation in the ten LWE affected States.
The meeting was attended by Chief Ministers of Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Odisha and Uttar Pradesh. Chief Secretaries and DGPs of States were also present.
On specific directions of the Home Minister, Districts Magistrates and SPs of the 35 worst affected LWE districts were also invited to provide inputs and feedback from the cutting-edge level and understand their problems.
The Home Minister enunciated an operational strategy ‘SAMADHAN’ to fight Left Wing Extremism. The elements of this strategy are:
1.S- Smart Leadership
2.A- Aggressive Strategy
3.M- Motivation and Training
4.A- Actionable Intelligence
5.D- Dashboard Based KPIs (Key Performance Indicators)
6.H- Harnessing Technology
7.A- Action plan for each Theatre
8.N- No access to Financing
During the meeting, important issues and requests of States included the following:-
(a) Continuation/resumption of LWE specific schemes like Security Related Expenditure (SRE), Special Infrastructure Scheme (SIS), Integrated Action Plan (IAP)/ Additional Central Assistance (ACA), Counter Insurgency and Anti-Terrorism (CIAT) Schools and Fortified Police Stations.
(b) Inclusion of some new districts under the SRE Scheme.
(c) Deployment of additional Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) Battalions. Some States have also sought exemption from payments for CAPF battalions provided by the Centre.
(d) Most States requested for helicopter support for operations.
(e) Use of modern technology by the State Police and the CAPF was also discussed.
(f) Issues related to inter-State coordination, intelligence sharing, setting up of Joint Task Forces for operations along inter-State boundaries were deliberated upon.
(g) The Chief Minister of Bihar suggested that the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) needs to be reviewed to ensure effective choking of fund flow to LWE groups.
(h) Measures to prevent repetition of incidents such as at Sukma on April 24, 2017 was discussed at length with suggestions from SPs of the 35 worst affected LWE districts.
