K Vijay Kumar, Senior Security Advisor (SSA) to the Ministry of Home Affairs, has expressed his unwillingness to continue in the post due to personal reasons, News18 has learnt.
Confirming the development, Kumar told News18 that he had left for Chennai and officially communicated his decision to the Home Ministry. Sources also confirmed that the hunt for a new advisor has begun.
A top-level official said Kumar vacated his Delhi accommodation a few weeks ago and is not holding any office now. Almost four weeks ago, he had given a lecture at the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration and later put in his papers.
Sources claimed he stepped down and then went back to Chennai due to personal reasons. The officer, who had been handling and advising the government on issues of Left Wing Extremism (LWE), had been missing from some key meetings held at the top level in the past few weeks.
He also told the offices concerned to directly contact him for coordination since he had no office staff, sources said.
It is expected that the government will appoint a new advisor, given that the fight against Naxalism has reached its final phase. However, no names have been cleared for the post by the ministry yet.
Kumar, a retired 70-year-old IPS officer, was appointed as Senior Security Advisor to the Union Home Ministry in 2019 and was continuing in the post.
The official communication when Kumar was appointed had said that the 1975 batch officer was appointed to advise the ministry on security-related matters of Jammu and Kashmir and Left Wing Extremism-affected states. He had visited various key areas affected by LWE and was involved in strategising operations against Naxals.
The officer had served in various key positions, including Advisor to Jammu and Kashmir Governor, STF Tamil Nadu chief, DG CRPF, and Commissioner Chennai.
He hit the headlines after successfully conducting Operation Cocoon in which Veerappan was eliminated by the STF, which was then headed by him. He was given charge of CRPF after Naxals killed 76 personnel in Dantewada in 2010. The officer had over a decade-long experience in dealing with LWE.
The government of India has said that the steadfast implementation of the National Policy and Action Plan to Address Left Wing Extremism (LWE)-2015 has resulted in a consistent decline in LWE violence. The incidents of LWE violence have reduced by 77 per cent from an all-time high of 2,258 in 2009 to 509 in 2021, it said.
Similarly, the resultant deaths of civilians and security personnel have reduced by 85 per cent from an all-time high of 1,005 in 2010 to 147 in 2021, the ministry added.
“The geographical spread of the violence has also reduced as only 46 districts reported LWE-related violence in 2021 as compared to 96 districts in 2010. Decline in geographical spread is also reflected in reduced number of districts covered under the Security Related Expenditure (SRE) Scheme. The number of SRE districts was also reduced from 126 to 90 in April 2018 and further to 70 in July 2021,” the MHA said in a reply in the Rajya Sabha.
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