New Delhi: The Government has announced that the number of districts ‘Most Affected’ by Naxalism has now come down to three from six. Only Bijapur, Sukma and Narayanpur in Chhattisgarh are now designated districts ‘Most Affected’ by Naxalism.
Calling this a giant stride in the Modi government’s efforts to create a Naxal-free Bharat, the government has said that the number of ‘LWE Affected’ districts in the country has also come down to 11 from 18.
“The Modi government is committed to completely eradicate the Naxal menace by March 31, 2026. Under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and guidance of Union home minister Amit Shah, the operational successes have surpassed all previous records this year. While 312 LWE cadres have been eliminated, including the CPI (Maoist) general secretary and eight other polit bureau/central committee members, 836 cadres were arrested. As many as 1,639 have surrendered and joined the mainstream. The surrendered Naxalites include one polit bureau member and a central committee member,” the Government has said in a statement.
“This unprecedented success in combating the Naxal menace has been achieved through rigorous implementation of National Action Plan and Policy which envisages a multi-pronged approach. The National Action Plan and Policy include precise intelligence-based and people friendly counter Left Wing Extremism (LWE) operations. These steps were accompanied by swift domination of areas with security vacuum, targeting of top leaders as well as over ground workers, countering the nefarious ideology, rapid development of infrastructure and saturation of welfare schemes, choking of finances, enhanced coordination between states and centre governments and accelerated investigation and prosecution of Maoist related cases,” the statement added.
Naxalism has been termed India’s “biggest internal security challenge” by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in 2010. The Naxals were then planning a Red Corridor – stretching from Pashupati in Nepal to Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh.
“In 2013, 126 districts in different states reported Naxal-related violence. By March 2025, this number had fallen to just 18 districts, with only 06 classified as ‘Most Affected Districts. There has been further improvement in the situation in the last six months,” it has been mentioned.
