Union Minister of State for Home G Kishan Reddy on Wednesday said that Maoist violence in the country had reduced by 43% in the last five years when compared to the five years before that. Reddy said that steadfast government policy had resulted in the “consistent decline in Left Wing extremism-related violence and geographical spread” of its influence in the country.

The minister was replying to a written question in the Rajya Sabha about the status of Maoist-related violence in the country and what the government had to done to prevent it. Reddy said that Left Wing extremism had been reported in only 60 districts in 2018. “Of these, only 10 districts account for two-third of LWE [left wing extremism] violence,” PTI quoted him as saying. “The LWE-related incidents of violence between April 2014 to May 2019 have been 43% lesser when comparing with the preceding five-year period.”

The National Policy and Action Plan, which had been approved in 2015 to tackle Left Wing extremism, had laid out a multi-pronged strategy, Reddy said. It involved security-related measures, development interventions, maintaining rights and “entitlements of local communities”.

Reddy further said that the central government had approved a special central assistance for most districts that have been impacted by Left Wing extremism with an annual expenditure of Rs 1,000 crore that will cover the lacunae in public infrastructure and services.