'Left-wing extremism will be completely eradicated before March 2026': Amit Shah

Raipur: Union Home Minister Amit Shah has said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government "will completely eradicate Left Wing Extremism from the country by March 2026".

"The time has come for the final assault on Left Wing Extremism," Union Home Minister Shah said on Saturday at a press conference after chairing a key security meet on anti-Maoist operations in Chhattisgarh.

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

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

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

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

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

The surrender policy for Maoists should be flexible but efforts should be made to ensure that it is not misused, the Home Minister 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, and Director Generals of CRPF, BSF, SSB and ITBP also took part in the meeting, the official added.

IANS