On December 15, Union Home Minister Amit Shah visited Raipur to present the President’s Colour award to the Chhattisgarh police, praising their exemplary work in maintaining law and order, combating naxalism, and ensuring peace in the State.
Shah’s visit marked the anniversary of the BJP’s first year in power in Chhattisgarh, during which he set a March 31, 2026 deadline to eradicate naxalism from the State. Highlighting the progress made towards that effort, Shah announced that the security forces had killed 287 naxalites, including 14 top leaders, arrested 1,000 people, and facilitated 837 surrenders in one year. He cited a 73 per cent drop in the number of casualties among security personnel and a 70 per cent decline in civilian deaths compared with the previous decade.
Speaking at the Martyrs Memorial in Jagdalpur, which honours the 1,399 security personnel killed in naxal violence in the State, Shah underscored the BJP government’s economic initiatives, revealing that more than 15,000 houses—over 9,000 of them in Bastar—are being constructed under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana for families affected by the violence. Shah highlighted Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “empathy for these areas”. But he refrained from talking about the rising number of complaints regarding the deaths of allegedly innocent people in the ongoing war against insurgents.
