India, March 6 -- Union home minister Amit Shah on Friday set a firm deadline for ending Left-Wing Extremism in India, declaring that the country will be free of Maoist violence by March 31 and that security forces will ensure the defeat of any attempt to create a so-called 'Red Corridor' stretching from Tirupati to Pashupati.

Speaking at the 57th Raising Day ceremony of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) on the banks of the Mahanadi in Odisha, Shah said the Narendra Modi government had taken a "pledge" to eliminate the menace and that the CISF had made significant contributions to the effort in states such as Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Telangana.

"The dream of those who imagined a Red Corridor from Tirupati to Pashupati will be...