Left Wing Extremism (LWE) is showing a downward trend, but still affects many parts of the country. Briefly explain the Government of India’s approach to counter the challenges posed
by LWE. (150words)
Government is trying to deal with Left Wing Extremism in a holistic manner, by ensuring rights and entitlements of local communities & improvement in governance and public perception management. The Home ministry had categorised 106 districts in 10 states as LWE-affected districts in 2017. These districts come under the Security Related Expenditure (SRE) scheme. As part of this scheme, Government provides reimbursement of expenditure on transportation, communication, the hiring of vehicles, a stipend to surrendered Maoists, construction of infrastructure and much more. The Home ministry has recently undertaken a comprehensive exercise in consultation with the states to review the affected districts in order to ensure that deployment of forces and resources are in sync with the changed ground reality.
In order to counter Maoist efforts to expand their influence in tribal areas at the tri-junction of Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, three districts of Kerala have been included in the list of SRE districts, despite the fact that there is no violence in the new districts and the move is pre-emptive.