India, Feb. 5 -- Left Wing Extremism would be eliminated in the country by March 2026, and there has been a sharp decline in Naxal violence due to "zero tolerance" policy of the Narendra Modi Government, Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai said in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday.

Replying to supplementaries during Question Hour, he said, the problem of Left-Wing Extremism, or Naxalism as it is commonly referred to in India, dates back to 1968 and persisted over decades due to a lack of a national policy on it.

"India would be free of Naxalism by March 2026. It could not be finished earlier because the Government in the Centre believed it was a problem of the states. This problem has been there since 1968, from Pashupati to Tirupati, t...