Why in news?

• Ten personnel of the Chhattisgarh Police’s District Reserve Guard (DRG) and the civilian driver of their vehicle were killed in an IED attack by Maoists in the state’s Dantewada district.
  • The special unit of the Chhattisgarh Police, the DRG, was raised from the local tribal population and trained to fight Maoists only a few years ago.

What’s in today’s article?

• Left Wing Extremism (About, causes for spread, current situation)
• News Summary

Left Wing Extremism (LWE)

• It is the single internal security threat that affects the largest number of States in India.
• LWE aims to overthrow the existing democratic state structure with violence as their primary weapon, and mass mobilization and strategic united fronts as complementary components.
  • They plan to usher in So-called ‘New Democratic Revolution’ in India.
• Left-wing extremists are popularly known as Maoists worldwide and as Naxalites in India.

Causes for spread of LWE

• Land Related Factors:
  • Encroachment and occupation of Government and Community lands (even the water-bodies) by powerful sections of society.
  • Lack of title to public land cultivated by the landless poor.
  • Poor implementation of laws prohibiting the transfer of tribal land to non-tribals in the Fifth Schedule areas.
  • Non-regularisation of traditional land rights.
• Displacement and Forced Evictions:
  • Eviction from lands traditionally used by tribals.
  • Displacements caused by irrigation and power projects without adequate arrangements for rehabilitation.
  • Large scale land acquisition for ‘public purposes’ without appropriate compensation or rehabilitation.
• Livelihood Related Causes:
  • Lack of food security – corruption in the Public Distribution System
  • Disruption of traditional occupations and lack of alternative work opportunities.
  • Deprivation of traditional rights in common property resources.
• Social Exclusion:
  • Denial of dignity.
  • Continued practice, in some areas, of untouchability in various forms.
  • Poor implementation of special laws on prevention of atrocities, protection of civil rights and the abolition of bonded labour etc.
• Governance Related Factors:
  • Corruption and inadequate provision/non-provision of essential public services including primary health care and education.
  • Misuse of powers by the police and violations of the norms of law.
  • Perversion of electoral politics and unsatisfactory working of local government institutions.

What is the current LWE situation in India?

• Maoist violence came down
  • According to the Ministry of Home Affairs:
    • Maoist violence in the country has gone down by 77% since 2010;
    • The number of resultant deaths (security forces + civilians) has come down by 90 % from the all-time high of 1,005 in 2010 to 98 in 2022.
• Number of districts declared to be Naxal-affected
  • The government has cut the number of districts declared to be Naxal-affected from over 200 in the early 2000s to just 90 now.
  • It claims that the geographical spread of violence is actually restricted to just 45 districts.
    • According to the MHA, the arc of violence has been considerably restricted with just 25 districts accounting for 90% of the LWE violence.
  • The presence of Naxals is said to be minimal to zero in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Odisha, Jharkhand, and Bihar, which were at one time their strongholds.

News Summary: Chhattisgarh Maoist attack

Why does Chhattisgarh continue to remain troubled?

• Late involvement of State Police in counter-Maoist operations
  • It is a widely accepted principle in counter-Maoist strategy that the war against Left Wing Extremism can only be won by the state police and not central forces.
    • This is because the state police have local knowledge and have local networks that are essential for the generation of intelligence.
  • It was through the active involvement of local police in the leading role that states such as Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Odisha and Jharkhand were able to end their Maoist problem.
  • This process, security establishment sources say, started late in Chhattisgarh.
  • By this time, police of neighbouring states had pushed Maoists from their states to Chhattisgarh, making it a concentrated zone of Maoist influence.
• Absence of roads in the interiors of Bastar
  • The absence of roads in the interiors of Bastar has stymied the operations of security forces.
  • Minimal presence of the administration in the interiors of South Bastar has ensured that Maoists continue to have influence in the region.

How has the Centre responded?

• Different schemes to support LWE states
  • Security Related Expenditure (SRE) - focuses on equipping security forces to fight Maoists;
  • The Special Infrastructure Scheme (SIS) - aims to strengthen local police and intelligence set ups;
  • Special Central Assistance for building infrastructure such as roads in LWE districts.
• Massive presence of the CRPF
  • The Centre has maintained a massive presence of the CRPF in the affected states for almost two decades.
• Erection of mobile towers
  • Centre is pushing for the erection of mobile towers in the interiors, which would help the local people connect with the mainstream, and also generate technical intelligence.
• Maoists sympathisers on the radar of Centre
  • The Centre has also unleashed the counter-terrorism National Investigation Agency (NIA) and the Enforcement Directorate on CPI(Maoist) cadres, leaders, and sympathisers with the aim to choke their funding.

• SAMADHAN doctrine
• It is the one-stop solution for the LWE problem. It encompasses the entire strategy of government from short-term policy to long-term policy formulated at different levels. SAMADHAN stands for-
• S- Smart Leadership,
• A- Aggressive Strategy,
• M- Motivation and Training,
• A- Actionable Intelligence,
• D- Dashboard Based KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) and KRAs (Key Result Areas),
• H- Harnessing Technology,
• A- Action plan for each Theatre,
• N- No access to Financing.
• ROSHNI
  • It is a special initiative under, Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana (Formerly Ajeevika Skills), launched in June 2013 for training and placement of rural poor youth from 27 LWE-affected districts in 09 States