Yojana’s June 2026 issue is a Special Issue themed “Naxal-Free Bharat” (Hindi edition: “Naxal Mukt Bharat”), published as the government’s 31 March 2026 deadline to end Left Wing Extremism passes. The issue examines the security-plus-development model that shrank the Maoist footprint from over a hundred districts to the last pockets of Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand.
Article-by-article gists of this issue are not yet available; the analysis below covers the issue’s theme using verified MHA and PIB data, and this page will be expanded when the issue’s chapter summaries are published.
Inside This Issue
The Naxal-Free Bharat theme tracks three threads:
- The security campaign - intelligence-led operations, security camps in core areas, and the surrender-and-rehabilitation pipeline
- The development plank - roads, telecom, banking and postal saturation in LWE districts as the answer to the “governance vacuum”
- After the deadline - consolidating gains so cleared districts do not relapse
Key Concepts
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| LWE | Left Wing Extremism; the Maoist insurgency across central-eastern India |
| Naxal Mukt Bharat Abhiyan | Campaign to end LWE, deadline 31 March 2026 |
| SAMADHAN | MHA’s 8-point counter-LWE doctrine (Smart leadership to No access to financing) |
| Digital Bharat Nidhi | Renamed USOF, financing rural and LWE-area telecom towers |
| SRE scheme | Security Related Expenditure; central reimbursement of states’ counter-LWE costs |
| Most Affected Districts | MHA category for the worst LWE districts; cut from 12 to 6, then fewer |
Prelims Pointers
- LWE-affected districts: from about 126 (2014) to low single digits by early 2026
- The “most affected” list fell from 12 to 6: Bijapur, Kanker, Narayanpur, Sukma (Chhattisgarh), West Singhbhum (Jharkhand), Gadchiroli (Maharashtra)
- Violent incidents down over 53 percent; security personnel deaths down 73 percent
- 1,639 Naxalites surrendered, 836 arrested, 312 eliminated (as reported March 2026)
- Development saturation: 15,000+ km roads, 9,200+ mobile towers, 6,025 post offices, 1,800+ bank branches in LWE areas
UPSC GS Relevance
- GS3: internal security, linkages between development and the spread of extremism
- GS2: governance in tribal and Fifth Schedule areas
- Essay: development as counter-insurgency
