The Centre believes its holistic approach towards Left wing extremism was “slowly but surely showing positive impact” and the declining trend of LWE violence which started in 2011, continued in 2017.

In its just-released Annual Report for 2017-18, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said “the last four years have seen an unprecedented improvement in the LWE scenario across the country”.

“An overall 20 per cent reduction in violent incidents (1136- to 908) and 33.8 per cent reduction (397 to 263) in LWE-related deaths in 2017 as compared to 2013 has been reported,” the report said.

In comparison to 2016, the year 2017 saw a decline of 13.4 per cent (1048 to 908) in incidents of violence and 5.4 per cent (278 to 263) in resultant deaths.
“At the same time, the developmental outreach by the Government of India has resulted in an increasingly large number of LWE cadres shunning the path of violence and returning to the mainstream,” the Annual Report said.

Although state governments are to discharge law and order responsibilities of the states, the Centre closely monitors the LWE problem. It has put in place a National Policy and Action Plan inclusive of security and development activities, while ensuring tribals rights, and focused attention on 106 LWE affected districts in 10 states, particularly in the 35 most affected LWE districts of seven states, the report said.

The Centre is providing funds to the states under its various schemes for improvement of basic infrastructure like road and rail connectivity, mobile connectivity, educational and health initiatives and electrification, the report said. The Forest Rights Act, 2006 provisions pertaining to allotment of title deeds to individuals and communities is also a focused area of priority.

Recently, a special scheme for 35 most affected districts, the Special Central Assistance (SCA) has been approved by the Centre for development of these areas, the Annual Report said.

Chhattisgarh (373 incidents and 130 deaths) remains the worst affected state followed by Jharkhand (251 incidents and 56 deaths), Bihar (99 incidents and 22 deaths), Odisha (81 incidents and 29 deaths) and Maharashtra (69 incidents and 16 deaths).

Chhattisgarh, despite being the core area for LWE activity, recorded a 5.6 per cent decrease in incidents of violence.

The improvement in the LWE scenario can be attributed to greater presence and increased capacity of the security forces across the LWE affected states, better operational strategy and regular monitoring of development work, the MHA report said.