Days after Amit Shah sets year 2026 as extremism-free target, Centre doubles funding for road connectivity in LWE areas

Under the scheme, the Centre and states share the expenditure in 60:40 ratio — same as under PMGSY.

In a communication to the states on September 2, the Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD), the nodal ministry for the scheme, said the revised “indicative allocation” of funds — the central share — has been kept at Rs 1,000 crore for financial year 2024-25. This is double the amount allocated earlier.

On May 6, the ministry had informed the states that Rs 500 crore had been allocated as central share for 2024-25.

Of the Rs 1,000 crore allocated, three states — Chhattisgarh (Rs 200 crore), Jharkhand (Rs 200 crore), Andhra Pradesh (Rs 150 crore) and — will receive the most, followed by Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh (Rs 140 crore each).

According to sources, the allocation is indicative and it is likely to increase further if required.

The ministry’s move came a little over a week after the Union Home Minister said on August 24 that the fight against Maoists was in its “last stage” and the country will be free of LWE by March 2026.

“I believe that time has come to deal with LWE with one strong strategy… ruthless strategy to deliver the last blow… We all believe LWE is the biggest challenge to our country’s democratic process. I believe this fight is in the last stage. By March 2026, we will end the Naxal issue in our country. In 2010, Naxal incidents were being reported from 107 districts… now this figure has come down to 42,” Shah said at a press conference in Raipur.

In its first term, the NDA government had approved the RCPLWEA on December 28, 2016. The scheme aims at improving the rural road connectivity in “the worst LWE affected districts” across 9 states — Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Telangana and Uttar Pradesh.

The revised allocation of Rs 1,000 crore means the nine states will have to allocate at least Rs 500 crore together for their share, taking the total availability of funds to about Rs 1,500 crore in the current financial year.

According to the Centre, RCPLWE is envisaged as a “major trigger for socio-economic development and strengthening of rural livelihoods in the LWE-affected areas by providing both mobility and access to the population”.

“These roads would also serve the strategic security needs of these areas, which have suffered from historical deficit in terms of infrastructure development, giving rise to Left Wing Extremism,” state the RCPLWEA guidelines.

Initially, the government had set a target of construction of 5,411.81 km under the scheme. However, in December 2018, the Ministry of Home Affairs further recommended 6,043 km roads under the scheme. In June 2020, the Union Home Ministry recommended additional proposals of 348 roads (2,024 km).

Since the scheme’s inception, 1,347 road projects covering a length of 12,227.69 km have been sanctioned, of which 907 road projects and road length of 9,258.88 km have been completed until now, according to data available on the PMGSY dashboard.

The Centre has also revised allocation of rural connectivity funds under the Pradhan Mantri Janjati Adivasi Nyaya Maha Abhiyan (PM-JANMAN) from Rs 1,260 crore to Rs 2,000 crore for 2024-25. The allocation of the PMGSY has been revised downward to Rs 15,908.86 crore from Rs 17,163.98 crore for the current financial year.