E-Paper
Districts ‘most affected’ by LWE down to 3: Govt
Maoist insurgency in India has drastically decreased from 126 to 3 districts (2018-2025), with LWE-related violence dropping by 89%.
New Delhi
The number of districts affected by Maoists insurgency has consistently gone down in the country from 126 to just three between 2018 and 2025, minister of state for home Nityanand Rai said in to a question in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday.
“LWE, which has been a serious challenge to the internal security of the nation, has been significantly curbed in recent times and has been constricted to only a few pockets,” Rai said.
Sharing data, Rai said the Left-Wing Extremism (LWE)-related violent incidents have reduced from a 1,936 in 2010 by 89% to 218 in 2025. “ Resultant deaths of civilians & security forces personnel have also come down from 1,005 in 2010 by 91% to 93 in 2025. In 2025 (till 1 December), security forces have neutralized 335 Maoists, arrested 942 and facilitated 2,167 surrenders, Rai said in the reply.
According to the data, since 2019, at least 1106 Maoists have been neutralised, 7311 arrested and 5571 have surrendered
“To address the LWE menace holistically, a National Policy and Action Plan to address LWE was approved in 2015. It envisages a multi-pronged strategy involving security related measures, development interventions, ensuring rights and entitlements of local communities etc,” he said in response to a question by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Janardan Singh Sigriwal.
He added that the Centre has commissioned 9,050 towers for cell phone connectivity in the LWE-hit areas.
Chhattisgarh government officials said that on Sunday one such village Kondapalli in Bijapur(one of the only three remaining most affected LWE districts in India) received cell phone connectivity. There are many widely circulated photographs of villagers celebrating the installation of a cell phone tower in Kondapalli.
