There has been a significant decline in Left Wing Extremism (LWE) in Andhra Pradesh in the last one year, both in terms of incidents and its geographical spread, according to the Andhra Pradesh Police.
The LWE-related activities in the state have largely been confined to Alluri Sitharama Raju, the new district carved out of Paderu division of Visakhapatnam district and Rampachodavaram division of East Godavari district, with the Maoist cadre operating in the belt declining from 100 to 48 now, said AP Director General of Police (DGP) KV Rajendranath Reddy.
The Maoist military formations responsible for their guerrilla actions saw a sharp reduction from 2 companies comprising a total of 50 members to a mere platoon with 10 members in the last one year, as per information gathered by the state police’s Special Intelligence Branch.
The DGP said that while there used to be 8 Maoist Area Committees — in Kalimela, Narayanpatna, Nandapur, Coffee Dalam, Galikonda, Pedayalu, Gumma and Boipariguda — in early 2019, their tally has now dropped to 4 Area Committees along the Andhra-Odisha Border (AOB).
According to the AP Police officials, only 2 Divisional Committees — Visakha East and Malkangiri-Koraput Border — 4 Area Committees — Galikonda, Pedbayalu, Gumma, and Boipariguda — and 1 military platoon of left extremists are active in the AOB region now. They said Central Committee member Gajarla Ravi alias Uday is the lone highest-ranking Maoist member operating in the AOB’s Special Zonal Committee (SZC).
The DGP said that public perception towards Maoists has been changing and they are fast losing their local support due to their “violent activities”.
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