State cracking down on illegal Bangladeshis: CM

The accused had Bangladesh's National ID card, along with Indian documents such as an Aadhaar card and a PAN card.

- Surendra P Gangan

MUMBAI: Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis claimed that Maharashtra will be Maoist-free in the next three years as only half of Gadchiroli district is still impacted by Maoist-affected activities. He claimed new recruitment in the Maoist movement in the state has stopped and prominent Maoists have started surrendering.

Fadnavis said this while replying to the concluding week motion moved by the opposition in the legislative assembly on Saturday. "North Gadchiroli has been freed of Maoist activities due to effective measures taken by the government. Thirty-three Maoists were killed, 55 arrested and 33 have surrendered in the recent past in North Gadchiroli. Leading Maoist leader Girdhar surrendered recently. This has also helped weaken Maoist activities in South Gadchiroli too," he claimed. "New recruitment in the Maoist movement in the state has stopped. The recruitment that takes place is from adjoining states like Chhattisgarh and Odisha."

The government has announced government jobs in the Class I category to the children of people martyred by Maoists and three youth had already been recruited, said Fadnavis. He added that 1,500 youth from Gadchiroli were recruited in the police force recently, 35 of them being Maoist-affected families.

The chief minister also told the house that Gadchiroli would soon be known as "steel city" as the district has attracted investments of ₹50,000 crore. He said Gadchiroli, Nagpur and Chandrapur districts in Vidarbha are attracting mineral-intensive industries. "Gadchiroli will have 30% capacity of steel manufacturing of the country soon," he said.