Union Home Minister, P.Chidambaram on 15 June 2011, revealed that the Maoist/Naxalite violence had dropped by over 40 per cent, and he credited this change to the success of the “two-pronged strategy”, a combination of the development programme and police actions being adopted by the Maoist affected provinces. He stressed that 80 policemen have been killed so far this year by Maoists as compared to 177 during this time last year. Civilian casualties, too, have come down to 190 from 296 in the previous year.