Steps to Counter Maoist Threat

• 10 Dec 2020

Why in News

To speed up the implementation of the Road Requirement Plan for extremism-affected areas, Chhattisgarh has suggested the Center to divide the remaining contracts into small packets so that local contractors can take up the jobs.

Key Points

• Road Requirement Plan for Left Wing Extremism (LWE) Affected Areas:
  
  • This Scheme is being implemented by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways for improving road connectivity in 34 LWE affected districts of 8 States.
  • 8 States are Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha and Uttar Pradesh.
  • This scheme envisaged construction of 5,422 km roads lengths in LWE affected States.
• Present Issue:
  
  • 90% of the 5422 km Road Requirement Plan stands completed, but progress remains a problem in Chhattisgarh.
    
    • Of the 419 km of roads remaining across four states, Chhattisgarh accounts for 360 km.
  • Proposed Solution:
    
    • Chhattisgarh proposed to the Centre to break up the contracts into small portions so that local contractors can take up the jobs.
    • When local people take up the contracts, they are in a better position to get the work done.
• Left Wing Extremism (LWE):
  
  • LWE organizations are the groups that try to bring change through violent revolution. They are against democratic institutions and use violence to subvert the democratic processes at ground level.
  • These groups prevent the developmental processes in the least developed regions of the country and try to misguide the people by keeping them ignorant of current happenings.
  • Left Wing Extremists are popularly known as Maoists worldwide and as Naxalites in India.
• Other Government Initiatives to fight LWE:
  
  • Greyhounds: It was raised in 1989 as an elite anti-naxal force.
  • Operation Green Hunt: It was started in 2009-10 and massive deployment of security forces was done in the naxal-affected areas.
  • LWE Mobile Tower Project: To improve mobile connectivity in the LWE areas, the Government in 2014, approved installation of mobile towers in LWE affected States.
  • Aspirational Districts Programme: Launched in 2018, it aims to rapidly transform the districts that have shown relatively lesser progress in key social areas.
  • SAMADHAN:
    
    • It 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, and
      • N- No access to Financing.
    • This doctrine 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.

Way Forward

• Though the number of incidents of LWE violence has come down in the recent past, continued efforts and focus are needed in eliminating such groups.
• Government needs to ensure two things; security of the peace-loving people and the development of the naxalism-affected regions.
• Centre and states should continue with their coordinated efforts in development and security both where Centre should play a supportive role with state police forces taking the lead.
• Government needs to undertake technological solutions such as the use of drones to minimize loss of lives of security personnel.

Source: IE