The Home Ministry has issued a fresh categorisation of the districts affected by Left Wing Extremism (LWE) across 10 states after their number came down by almost half in the past nine years, officials said on Thursday.
Sharing the list with the director generals of police concerned, the officials said a total of 38 districts across these 10 states are categorised as LWE-affected with effect from April 1, 2024 compared to 75 in 2015.
The categorisation of the LWE-affected districts in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Telangana and West Bengal provide the basis for deployment of resources under the National Policy and Action Plan, approved in 2015, to combat LWE holistically.
The Centre and the state governments have been working closely to tackle this problem. A number of interventions are being made, both security and development related, as a result of which there has been a marked improvement in the LWE scenario, the officials said.
Chhattisgarh still topped the chart with LWE-affected 15 districts, followed by Odisha (seven districts), Jharkhand (five), Madhya Pradesh (three), Kerala, Maharashtra, Telangana (two each), and West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh (one each), the officials said.
Of these, 12 districts – seven in Chhattisgarh, two in Odisha and one each in Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra – are categorised as "most affected districts", and nine – four in Jharkhand, two in Odisha and one each in Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Telangana – are categorised as "districts of concern", the officials said.
The 'most affected district' section was created in 2015 with 35 districts to ensure focused deployment of resources, the officials said, adding subsequently following a review in 2018, the number of such districts was brought down to 30 and thereafter to 25 in 2021, the officials said.
The 'districts of concern' group was added to address the resource gap where the LWE influence is waning.
Eight districts were kept in the list for two years from 2021-22 to 2022-23 and all of these districts have been excluded from the list and nine new districts have been included, the officials said.
In addition, they said eight districts in Bihar, six in Jharkhand, three in Odisha and one each in Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Telangana are categorized as "legacy and thrust" districts.
The officials said these districts have a legacy of supporting the LWE and therefore, support to states is required for consolidating the position and continued support in respect of security and development measures for some more time.
The 'thrust districts' are the districts which are prospective sites of LWE expansion and therefore, continued support would be required for continued capacity building.
The officials said the evolving LWE situation necessitates a periodic review of the districts in order to ensure that the focus of anti-LWE efforts remains aligned to the ground realities.
