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Monday, March 09, 2015

Communal violence cases dropped by 22% from 2013 to 2014
New Delhi


Communal incidents in the country fell by almost 22% to 643 in 2014 from 823 in 2013. In fact, the latest figure is the lowest in the last three years, with 2012 having recorded 668 cases.A look at the data released by the government in reply to two Parliament questions dated December 2, 2014 and March 4, 2015 shows that Uttar Pradesh took much of the credit for the dip in communal attacks, recording the biggest drop (43.3%) from 247 incidents in 2013 to 140 last year. Incidentally , the high incidence of communal violence in UP in 2013 was mainly on account of the riots in Muzaffarnagar and adjoining areas in August and September that year.
The state-wise break-up of communal attacks reported in 2014 puts UP at the top of the table with 140 incidents, followed by Maharashtra with 93, Gujarat with 75, Karnataka with 74, Rajasthan with 70 and Bihar with 61. The incidence of communal flare-ups was higher in Maharashtra, Gujarat and Rajasthan in 2014 compared to 2013. While Maharashtra and Gujarat reported a marginal rise in incidents from 88 to 93 and 68 to 75 respectively , Rajasthan witnessed a significant increase in attacks from 52 in 2013 to 70 last year.
Tamil Nadu recorded just 14 incidents in 2014 compared to 36 in 2013, though Delhi recorded higher incidents at seven (an apparent outcome of the Trilokpuri riots last November) from just two in 2013.
As per a monthly break-up of communal incidents from October 2014 to January 2015, put out as an annexure to the government's reply to a Rajya Sabha query , 49 and 33 attacks were reported across the country in November and December 2014 respectively , though this went up to 72 incidents in January 2015.
The sharp rise in incidents in January was on account of higher cases reported in Maharashtra (21) and Bihar (12).