Naxal footprint weakening, govt removes 20 of 90 dists from scheme

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, September 5

As the Naxal footprint in the country has shown a definite weakening trend, the government has removed 20 of the 90 districts and one from among 11 affected states from the coverage of centrally sponsored scheme — the Security Related Expenditure (SRE) — for implementing two-pronged strategy to contain the ultras and their induced violence, said officials involved in counter-left-wing extremism (LWE).

Officials said even the number of most affected districts, which account for 85 per cent of the Naxal violence, had come down from 30 to 25. Uttar Pradesh is out of the coverage of SRE as its three districts — Chandauli, Mirzapur and Sonebhadra — no longer require targeted interventions for containing Naxalism, they informed.

Under the SRE scheme, the Centre reimburses the bulk of the expenditure incurred by the Naxal-hit states, including ex gratia payment to civilians and security personnel killed by the ultras besides the expenses on mobility, logistics and communication as also ammunition used for operations against the ultras by Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) and the respective police forces, among others.

“The move follows a comprehensive review of the Naxal-hit states. The number of districts covered under the SRE scheme has now come down from 90 in 11 states to 70 in 10 states. SRE districts and the most affected districts were last revised in 2018,” a senior security official said.

Meanwhile, based on the criteria of Maoist violent incidents, a separate category of “Most-affected districts” was created in 2015 with 35 districts to ensure focused deployment of resources. Subsequently, following a review in 2018, the number of districts was brought down to 30. A fresh review of these districts was undertaken recently in which nine districts were dropped and four districts added to make a final list of 25 as part of the Most-affected districts category.