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New Delhi: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday reviewed the security situation in Naxal-affected areas and implementation of development projects with six chief ministers and top officials of four states.
The chief ministers who attended the meeting were: Naveen Patnaik (Odisha), K Chandrashekhar Rao (Telangana), Nitish Kumar (Bihar), Shivraj Singh Chouhan (Madhya Pradesh), Uddhav Thackeray (Maharashtra) and Hemant Soren (Jharkhand), official sources said. .
The Chief Ministers of West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala were also invited for the meeting. However, these four states were either represented by state ministers or top officials.
Sources said the Home Minister reviewed the security situation and the ongoing operations against Maoists and development projects in the Naxal-affected areas with the Chief Ministers and officials.
Shah took stock of the needs of the states, the strength of the forces deployed to deal with the insurgents, development works like construction of roads, bridges, schools and health centers in Naxal-affected areas.
Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said the Maoist problem in his state has been reduced to just three districts and the meeting discussed what needs to be done to reduce it further.
Union ministers Ashwini Vaishnav, Giriraj Singh, Arjun Munda and Nityanand Rai also attended the meeting.
Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla, Director of Intelligence Bureau Arvind Kumar, senior citizens and police officers from the central and state governments also attended.
According to the data of the Union Home Ministry, there has been a significant reduction in Maoist violence in the country and this threat is presently prevalent in about 45 districts.
However, a total of 90 districts in the country are considered Maoist-affected and come under the Security Related Expenditure (SRE) scheme of the ministry.
The Naxal problem, also known as Left Wing Extremism (LWE), was reported in 61 districts in 2019 and only 45 districts in 2020.
Around 380 security personnel, 1,000 civilians and 900 Naxalites were killed in various violence in Left Wing Extremism affected areas from 2015 to 2020.
A total of 4,200 Naxalites have also surrendered during the same period, the data said.
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