As per the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution of India, subjects of ‘Police and Public Order’ are with the State Governments. However, to address the Left Wing Extremism (LWE) menace holistically, Government of India (GoI) launched National Policy and Action Plan in 2015 to address LWE. The Policy envisages a multi-pronged strategy involving security related measures, development interventions, ensuring rights and entitlements of local communities, etc.
The steadfast implementation of this policy has resulted in consistent and sharp decline in LWE violence across the nation. The number of LWE related violent incidents have come down by 76% in 2022 in comparison to 2010. The number of resultant deaths (Security Forces + Civilians) have also reduced by 90 % in 2022 as compared to high of 2010. Geographical spread of violence has also significantly reduced and only 176 Police Stations of 45 districts reported LWE related violence in 2022 as compared to 465 Police Stations of 96 districts in 2010.
Decline in geographical spread is also reflected in the fact that of the total 45 districts reporting LWE violence in 2022, only 10 districts reported 72% of the total violence. Similarly, of the 176 PSs reporting by LWE violence, 30 PSs reported 50% of the violence.
During the last 05 years, there has been a significant decline in the number of LWE related violence incidents across the nation which has come down by 36% in 2022 in comparison to 2018. The number of resultant deaths (Security Forces + Civilians) have also reduced by 59% during this period.
This was stated by the Minister of State for Home Affairs, Shri Nityanand Rai in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha.
