Latest news with #LeftWingExtremism
Hans India
13 hours ago
- Politics
- Hans India
Chhattisgarh CM Vishnu Deo Sai seeks Gadkari's support for better connectivity
New Delhi: Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai met Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari on Thursday and discussed the progress of national highway projects and future infrastructure plans in the state. The Chief Minister also shared Chhattisgarh's long-term "Vision 2047" strategy, which focuses on building an integrated and environmentally sustainable transport system, with special emphasis on connectivity in rural and border areas to ensure inclusive growth. Sai briefed the Union Minister on ongoing road projects and reaffirmed the state government's commitment to completing them on time. He emphasised the importance of connecting remote and tribal areas with major roads to enhance connectivity and provide better economic opportunities. The Chief Minister stressed the need to strengthen the road network in industrial zones and newly formed districts for the overall development of the state. He added that roads are not merely for travel, they are essential for generating employment, attracting investment, and driving social transformation. Gadkari appreciated the state government's priorities and assured full support from the Central Government. He noted that improving road infrastructure in tribal regions would accelerate development and bring lasting change. The expansion of the road network in tribal regions is key to the Union government's target for eliminating Left Wing Extremism (LWE) in the country, including Chhattisgarh by March 31, 2026. To address LWE menace holistically, the Union government approved a 'National Policy and Action Plan to address LWE' in 2015. This policy envisaged a multi-pronged strategy involving security related measures, development interventions, ensuring rights and entitlements of local communities. Specific schemes have also been implemented for LWE affected areas, wherein special emphasis has been given on expansion of road network, improving telecommunications, educational empowerment and financial inclusion in LWE affected areas. More than 11,600 km roads have been constructed in LWE affected areas under two specific schemes till 2022.
&w=3840&q=100)
Business Standard
5 days ago
- Politics
- Business Standard
Internal security challenges to remain dynamic due to neighbourhood: Shah
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday said the country's internal security challenges would remain dynamic in view of India's geo-political neighbourhood. Delivering the concluding address at the eighth National Security Strategies Conference (NSSC) here, Shah also said that demonstrating strong political will, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has once again not only reaffirmed the policy of zero tolerance against terrorism, but also presented it before the world in a remarkable manner through Operation Sindoor. "Observing that the internal security challenges would remain dynamic in view of India's geo-political neighbourhood, Shah exhorted the state police forces and Central security agencies to adopt the motto of 'Suraksha, Sajagta and Samanvay' (security, alertness and coordination)," an official statement said. Stating that the Modi government has resolved numerous issues scattered across various states, Shah said, "India is one of the fastest emerging economies, and with that, the challenges before the country are also increasing. We must stay more vigilant and tackle problems with heightened awareness." He also called the NSSC significant in enabling senior officers to guide young officers, familiarise them with challenges, and show them the path to finding solutions. The home minister said the forces of all states and Central investigating agencies should move forward with the goal of becoming the best in the world. To address the challenges facing the nation, a reliable ecosystem for real-time data sharing must be established, he said. Shah also said that all agencies must make security-first approach, habitual alertness, and coordination an integral part of their working methodology. He mentioned that the prime minister's strong resolve and the support of fellow citizens sent a strong message of zero tolerance towards terrorism across the world. Pointing out that India's economy has risen to the fourth position globally, the home minister said India is now a world leader in new and emerging technologies, startups, green energy and innovations. He also emphasised that India's rising stature would lead to increasing national security challenges in the years to come. Stressing that these challenges needed to be tackled through better coordination, Shah called for the formation of homogenous teams of Central and state agencies to develop strategies, and implement and monitor them. He also instructed the involvement of young police officers in each state to brainstorm on national challenges and devise solutions to address them. Shah urged to inculcate the use of national databases like NATGRID, NIDAAN, iMoT and CBI's fugitive database among young officers by including them in all training programmes. The home minister emphasised that the next 5-10 years would be very important for the development and security of the country. While appreciating the achievements in Left Wing Extremism (LWE), northeast and Jammu and Kashmir theatres, he asked the DGsP to adopt a similar approach for effective implementation of the three new criminal laws and tackling the challenge of narcotics. He also advocated the need for a top-to-bottom and bottom-to-top approach in initiating action against the big drug cartels, besides focusing on extradition of narco-offenders. The DGsP were directed to make it the prime agenda of the police for the next three years in the path towards 'Nasha Mukt Bharat', the statement said. Pointing out that the police station is the focal point of intelligence collection, he called upon the police leadership to evolve a credible platform for sharing real-time information up to the police station level. Emphasising the primary duty of the police to protect the life, property and dignity of citizens, the home minister directed each state police force and Central agency to strive towards excellence, and nurture a spirit of healthy competition to address the internal security challenges. Stressing upon the need for all-round development in the LWE affected areas, Shah urged the DGsP to coordinate with state administrations to ensure the implementation of more than 300 Central and state development schemes at the grassroots level. Underscoring the importance of securing smaller seaports along the country's maritime borders, Shah emphasised capacity building of state police to counter infiltration and smuggling activities. He also reviewed the counter-terror initiatives and directed to take stringent legal action against the repeat offenders. Earlier he paid homage to the martyrs on the occasion of Kargil Vijay Diwas and saluted the efforts of the armed forces and BSF during Operation Sindoor.
Indian Express
25-07-2025
- Politics
- Indian Express
Suhas Palshikar writes: Left Wing Extremism is a smokescreen. Maharashtra's new law could criminalise dissent
What you require is a dictionary, the Supreme Court is reported to have told the SIT in the Ali Khan Mahmudabad case recently. Very soon, the courts may have to say, what you need is a set of Political Science books. The need to read Political Science literature may be necessitated by the mention of Left Wing Extremism (LWE) in a bill passed by the Maharashtra legislature in the name of protecting public security. Indeed, there is a separate section under the Ministry of Home Affairs that deals with LWE but one is not sure that there is a clear legal definition of LWE. The MHA portal says that LWE refers to organisations that are banned and listed as an appendix to the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. But that hardly satisfies the test of what conceptually constitutes LWE. Broad innuendos making the rounds in the public domain refer to Maoism. In operational terms, the provisions refer to the use of violence for the overthrow of the state. But since the Maharashtra government now intends to incriminate Left Wing ideology, the onus is on the government to specify what it means by it. In the absence of clarity, anyone can be accused of subscribing to Left Wing ideology, and then the police will be running from one library to another for material on what constitutes Left Wing ideas. The current dispensation in Maharashtra and nationally is allergic to the idea of the 'Left'. Therefore, it will do well to come forward and define for legal purposes which ideas are construed as Left and are hence liable to be proscribed. Maoist violence in many parts of the country has invited a reaction of repulsion even among those who may have a leftward leaning. That repulsion is tactically utilised intellectually and cinematically by some who employ the term 'urban Naxal'. Even the Maharashtra Chief Minister has repeatedly referred to urban Maoism. What is overlooked is the distinction between those who actively mobilise Maoist violence against the state, those who sympathise with such organisations and those who do not endorse such violence but subscribe to the idea that the stranglehold of capital over state authority needs to be removed. The other problem with the Maharashtra law is that it incriminates a number of activities that are already proscribed by various laws and thus there is a vicious duplication of legal instruments giving the executive and the police unseemly discretionary powers on whether to book someone under this law, under UAPA or a more routine law penalising crime and violence. We regularly witness instances of how executive discretion results in overenthusiasm and even partisan vendetta. The new law will be an additional instrument to harass civil society. Given that it precludes the bail provision and recourse to lower courts, one can only imagine its likely draconian effects. Perhaps the most worrisome provisions in this law pertain to freedom of speech and expression. True, we routinely get a dose of pontification from the judiciary that freedom — and freedom of expression, in particular — is not absolute. It is nobody's case that in the Indian context, this freedom is absolute or without constraints. But the central question that law-makers and the judiciary must answer is not whether freedom of expression is or should be absolute. The question is whether restraints on freedom of expression can be random and arbitrary. Scholars of the Indian Constitution have argued that writing down the restrictions on the freedom of expression produces a concrete limiting effect on the executive and legislature. The written restrictions guarantee that governments or state authorities will not have unlimited powers to curb the freedom of expression. Also, the constitutional scheme of things requires the test of reasonableness. Restrictions have to be reasonable. Courts are therefore not to tell a citizen what she should reasonably express but to examine if the enforced limitations are reasonable. In the backdrop of the judiciary's abdication of this sacrosanct duty, the provisions in Maharashtra's bill could be dangerous and ill-intended. Under this new law, 'unlawful' activities are defined as activities 'by act or words… or by sign or by visible representation'. In other words, freedom of expression, besides actual acts, is intended to be criminalised. As a member of the legislature publicly stated after the passage of the bill, holding seminars (purportedly on objectionable matters, in that lawmaker's view) will be punished by the new law. Therein exists a dual danger. One, any dog-whistling can easily activate the police machinery, and there is no mechanism to first examine such random complaints emanating from ideological or political rivals before action is taken; the Advisory Board comes into the picture only after action is taken by the police. Two, any intellectual activity can easily be brought under the purview of unlawful activity. What constitutes incitement to violence will always be a ticklish issue legally, morally and politically. For the sake of argument, let us admit that 'incitement' may be legitimately criminalised. In that case, incitement against minorities — indulged in even by some members of the state government — should also be criminalised. But since such perpetrators are not Left Wing, this law would turn a blind eye towards that incitement. As the new law says, any acts through words that 'constitute danger to peace and tranquility', 'acts of generating fear and apprehension in the public', 'preaching disobedience of law and its institutions' are construed as unlawful. A plain reading of these phrases should alert any citizen. Because, while the law mentions LWE, these political acts are the common language of democratic mobilisation and as such practically any social worker can be booked for extending a verbal criticism of authorities and appealing to citizens to protest. Any stringent criticism can be construed as endangering tranquility. Thus, the language of 'urban Naxal' is a smokescreen. The tameness and intellectual laziness of the Opposition in Maharashtra is such that it is content with limiting the powers under this law to LWE. In its abject muteness, the Opposition in Maharashtra has shown that it is following in the footsteps of the loyal Opposition in Gujarat. Following legislation in Chhattisgarh, Odisha etc, this law raises wider issues beyond being Left or non-Left. It is about the idea of the state and protests: Whether the state can be critiqued in a democracy and whether a self-proclaimed democratic state should be criminalising protest, dissent and difference of opinion. The writer, based in Pune, taught Political Science
The Print
23-07-2025
- Business
- The Print
Lloyds Metals to invest Rs 40k cr more in Gadchiroli
Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who is also the guardian minister of the district, inaugurated a 90-km pipeline and a pellet plant built by the company in Gadchiroli earlier in the day. The law and order situation in the eastern Maharashtra district impacted by Left Wing Extremism (LWE) is improving, and attempts are essential to mainstream the youth, its managing director B Prabhakaran told PTI over the phone. Mumbai, Jul 22 (PTI) Lloyds Metals and Steel is targeting to invest over Rs 40,000 crore to develop a steel plant and other units in Vidarbha's Gadchiroli district over the next five years, a top official said on Tuesday. 'We have a Rs 45,000 crore investment plan for the district, of which Rs 5,000 crore has already been invested,' Prabhakaran, who calls himself the 'managing director in residence', said. When asked how it will fund the capital expenditure in Gadchiroli, Prabhakaran said it will depend on internal accruals and also raise fresh funds if need be. He reminded that last year, it had raised over Rs 4,000 crore from a qualified institutional placement of shares. At present, the company's assets in the district include an iron ore mine in Surjagad, and the upcoming investments include a Rs 15,000 crore 'beneficiation plant', having a capacity of 45 million tonnes per annum and Rs 22,000 crore for a steel plant with a 4.5 million tonnes capacity, he added. Prabhakaran said the company will be investing up to Rs 5,000 crore per annum from here on, he said, adding that the overall employment generated by Lloyds will triple to 30,000 by the end of the investment cycle. Things are 'slowly changing' in the district, he said, adding that an already existing iron ore mine has been secured, using equipment of the kind used by the US in Afghanistan. With a history of protests like the ones in Surjagad, Prabhakaran said the company is focusing on taking the local community, which explains investments in hospitals and schools locally. He said nearly all the staff of the company have an equity stake in the company. The concession for the mine was signed over 15 years ago, but operations began only after 2021, he said, blaming the Naxalite problem in the intervening time. PTI AA BAL BAL This report is auto-generated from PTI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.
&w=3840&q=100)
Business Standard
22-07-2025
- Business
- Business Standard
Lloyds Metals aims to invest over ₹40,000 crore more in Gadchiroli
Lloyds Metals and Steel is targeting to invest over ₹40,000 crore to develop a steel plant and other units in Vidarbha's Gadchiroli district over the next five years, a top official said on Tuesday. The law and order situation in the eastern Maharashtra district impacted by Left Wing Extremism (LWE) is improving, and attempts are essential to mainstream the youth, its managing director B Prabhakaran told PTI over the phone. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who is also the guardian minister of the district, inaugurated a 90-km pipeline and a pellet plant built by the company in Gadchiroli earlier in the day. "We have a ₹45,000 crore investment plan for the district, of which ₹5,000 crore has already been invested," Prabhakaran, who calls himself the 'managing director in residence', said. When asked how it will fund the capital expenditure in Gadchiroli, Prabhakaran said it will depend on internal accruals and also raise fresh funds if need be. He reminded that last year, it had raised over ₹4,000 crore from a qualified institutional placement of shares. At present, the company's assets in the district include an iron ore mine in Surjagad, and the upcoming investments include a ₹15,000 crore 'beneficiation plant', having a capacity of 45 million tonnes per annum and ₹22,000 crore for a steel plant with a 4.5 million tonnes capacity, he added. Prabhakaran said the company will be investing up to ₹5,000 crore per annum from here on, he said, adding that the overall employment generated by Lloyds will triple to 30,000 by the end of the investment cycle. Things are "slowly changing" in the district, he said, adding that an already existing iron ore mine has been secured, using equipment of the kind used by the US in Afghanistan. With a history of protests like the ones in Surjagad, Prabhakaran said the company is focusing on taking the local community, which explains investments in hospitals and schools locally. He said nearly all the staff of the company have an equity stake in the company. The concession for the mine was signed over 15 years ago, but operations began only after 2021, he said, blaming the Naxalite problem in the intervening time.
