HM says Steps also taken for the development of affected areas

AMN / WEB DESK

Union Home and Cooperation Minister Amit Shah has said that the Central government has taken several steps for the development of naxal affected areas which substantially reduced the left wing extremist violence. He said, the Centre along with the States are committed to fully eliminate the problem of Left Wing Extremism under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Union Home and Cooperation Minister Amit Shah today chaired the 23rd meeting of the Central Zonal Council in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh. On this occasion, Mr. Shah said, the number of left wing extremist violence incidents reduced to 509 in 2021 which was two thousand 258 in 2009. He added that over one thousand people died in extremist violence in 2009 while 147 people died in 2021. He said the Central government is further strengthening security forces in left wing extremism affected areas under which 40 new security camps have been opened in the last three years and 15 more will be opened.

Talking about the development initiatives taken to counter the naxal problem, Mr. Shah said, the government has opened about five thousand post offices along with Postal Banking Centres in insurgency affected areas in the last three years. He said, more than two thousand 300 mobile towers have been installed in the first phase and two thousand 500 mobile towers are being installed in the second phase to speed up telecom services. Mr. Shah stressed that development of naxal affected areas will stop the recruitment of naxalites and the sources of mobilization of left wing extremists will also be exhausted.

The Home Minister said, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has always worked to strengthen the spirit of cooperative federalism. He said, frequency of meetings of the Zonal Councils have increased. He said, the increase in the number of meetings despite the Covid-19, emphasize on the concept of Team India of the Prime Minister. Mr. Shah said, there has been a 27 percent increase in resolving the issues in the Zonal Council meetings since 2019, which is a great achievement.

The 23rd meeting of the Central Zonal Council discussed the significant progress made towards expansion of banking facilities within five kilometers of all villages as envisioned by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for expansion of the banking network in rural areas. Seamless integration of the Police Help Line number 112 with the Women Help Line number 181, Child Help Line number 1098 and shifting the cases related to women to Sakhi-One Stop Center on a real time basis were also discussed in the meeting.

Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Chief Minister of Uttarakhand Pushkar Singh Dhami attended the meeting, while Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Yogi Adityanath and Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh Bhupesh Baghel attended the meeting virtually. Senior Ministers of member States, Union Home Secretary, Chief Secretaries of Member States and senior officials of State Governments and Central Ministries and Departments were also present in the meeting.