Naxal offences down by 20%: Report

A report titled “Demonetization: Impact on Combating Naxalism” released on Wednesday, claimed that compared to 2015, the number of incidents of naxal offences decreased by 20 per cent in 2017 in Chhattisgarh.

On November 8, 2016, the union government announced demonetization. The report is published by the Public Policy Research Centre ( PPRC), a research organization established under Dr Mookerjee Smruti Nyas in 2011. Director, PPRC and Rajya Sabha member, Dr Vinay Sahasrabubbhe said that results shows the union government’s intention to nullify the naxals.

Lead author of report, Mani Bhushan said that the research team visited Rajnandgaon, Sukma, Bijapur and Narayanpur and conducted the research in two phases spanning over 2300 kilometers, 33 villages and interviewing over 500 people.

According to the reports, number of naxal offences came down from 466 in 2015 to 373 in 2017 as naxalites were able to implement their strategy of ambush on the forces.

“There was sharp increase of 55 per cent in arrest or surrender of naxals was witnessed in the 2017 compared to 2015. In 2017 about 796 naxals were arrested or surrendered compared to 512 in 2015,” it said.

Appreciating the surrender policy of Chhattisgarh government, Dr Sahasrabubbhe said that Raman Singh government offering incentives to naxal to join mainstream and now there is no premium being rebellion.

Comparative study of UPA and NDA government combating naxalism at national level the report said that the naxal incidents had came down in 2017 to 908 in compared to 1,136 in 2013. The report also highlighted that killing of naxals also increased from 100 in 2013 to 150 in 2017.