India will uproot Left-Wing Extremism (LWE) in the next two years, with the fight reaching a decisive stage and the levels of violence and death due to LWE at its lowest in four decades, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said on Friday.

Chairing a review meeting of LWE-affected states along with Chief Ministers, Shah called for active surveillance in areas liberated from LWE to ensure violence does not revive.

Shah presented data at the high-level conference to stress that the government’s zero-tolerance policy against Naxal violence was yielding results.

Between 2004 and 2014, there has been a 52 per cent decline in total incidents of violence (14,862 to 7,128), 69 per cent fall in deaths (6,035 to 1,868), 72 per cent decline in casualty of security personnel (1,750 to 485), and 68 per cent fall in civilian deaths (4,285 to 1,383). The Union Home Minister said between 2010 and 2022, there had been a 53 per cent reduction in districts reporting violence from 96 to 45 and 62 per cent fall in police stations reporting violence (465 to 176).

“Left-Wing Extremism will be completely uprooted in the next two years. Vacuum areas have been shrinking since 2019. We have established 195 new camps of Central Armed Police Forces, and 44 more camps will be established. Deployment of CAPFs against left-wing extremism, rationalisation of development and setting up of camps in vacuum areas are the priorities of the government,” Shah said at the meeting. He underlined the need to maintain constant surveillance in the areas freed from LWE, so that the problem does not arise again.

“As a result of our zero-tolerance policy, the lowest level of violence and deaths have been recorded in 2022 in the last four decades. The National Investigation Agency and the Enforcement Directorate are working closely with all state agencies to attack the financing of LWE,” the HM said.