Synergy needed between states, Centre to end Maoism: HM

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday called for "synergy" between the Centre and states to effectively tackle Maoism even as Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar warned that the reported move to scrap the 'Special Infrastructure Scheme' (SIS) could adversely affect developmental works in affected areas.

These views were expressed at a review meeting on Left Wing Extremism (LWE) chaired by Shah and attended by Chief Ministers Nitish Kumar (Bihar), Naveen Patnaik (Odisha), Yogi Adityanath (Uttar Pradesh), Kamal Nath (Madhya Pradesh), Raghubar Das (Jharkhand), Bhupesh Baghel (Chhattisgarh) and Y S Jaganmohan Reddy (Andhra Pradesh) and senior officials from affected states and the Centre here.

Addressing the meeting, Shah said India's fight against those who try to subvert democracy with violence would "continue relentlessly".

He said states play a key role in maintaining law and order and "synergy between the centre and states can effectively address the issue" of Maoism. "Though incidents of LWE violence have come down, the focus needs to be kept to eliminate it completely and all efforts need to be maintained by Centre and states in full pace," he said.

Acknowledging that left-wing extremism was "one of the major internal security challenges" faced by the country for the last several decades, he said it has no place in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of 'New India'. They are "against democratic institutions and use violence to subvert the democratic process at ground level. They actively seek to prevent development in the least developed regions of the country," he added.

Kumar said in the meeting that they have learnt about Centre's decision to stop the SIS, which is aimed at capacity enhancement of security forces and to address the regional disparity in the Maoist-hit states, after 2019-20 and this would adversely affect the undergoing developmental works.

"The implementation of this scheme has produced good results... We had expected that the Central Government would further strengthen these schemes and increase the allocation of resources... Therefore, we would like to stress that the Central Government should continue these schemes in the same manner as before," he said.

He suggested that special measures need to be taken to expand developmental schemes in the affected states and additional funds should be made available for quicker implementation of earmarked schemes for faster delivery to the last man. Kumar demanded that states should be allowed to bring about procedural changes and amendments in parameters to suit the local needs.

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath said poor connectivity is the main issue which hampers collection and sharing of information.

He asked the Centre to make provision of at least 4G connectivity in Balaghat and Mandla districts in his state where communication network is heavily dependent on police wireless. "Fifty per cent of tribal blocks have only 2G connectivity," he said.