Maoists menace on the wane: Rajnath

Home minister says security agencies should remain alert

Maoist insurgency is on the wane but Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Wednesday warned against lowering the guard in tackling the menace, which is a problem in 10 states.

Singh said the government will commit all resources at its disposal to eradicate Left wing extremism (LWE) from the country as it “still remains the biggest threat” to internal security and nation building process. The naxal problem has remained on top of the agenda for interventions by the government, he said.

"The security establishment is encouraged since the LWE insurgency is on the decline. However, this (decline) should not lull us into a sense of complacency," Singh told the Consultative Committee of MPs attached to the Home Ministry.

At the meeting in October last year, then Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde had admitted Maoists still has the capacity to launch spectacular strikes in its stronghold areas and security agencies have a lot of ground to cover to tackle the armed capability of CPI (Maoist).

Though the Maoist violence peaked in 2010, a senior Home Ministry official said, it is now on a decline and the government claims that it is on the consolidation process. The number of incidents has declined from 2,213 in 2010 to 1,415 incidents in 2012 and 1,136 incidents in 2013. Up to July 15 this year, three were 630 incidents. The Centre is redrawing its strategy by pumping in more security personnel and fortifying 250 police stations in addition to 400 announced earlier.

On the surrender front, 260 naxals have surrendered in various states this year until August 15 while it was 171 for the corresponding period last year. For the whole 2013, there were 283 surrenders.

Singh said the government has adopted multi-pronged strategy in partnership with the states affected by LWE to tackle Maoist menace through different interventions in the areas related to security, development, rights and entitlement to tribal population and public perception management.

The Home Ministry has taken number of steps to improve the capacity of paramilitary forces and state police, including the raising of India Reserve Battalions (IRBs). At the meeting, various aspects of LWE ranging from economic development, security, causes and effects of the problem, ideology, coordination between central and state security forces and lack of communication in the affected states were discussed.