BHUBANESWAR: The State Government has decided to raise cash prize for arrest of frontline Maoist leaders significantly to deal with the increasing problem of left-wing extremism (LWE) in the State.
Official sources said the reward amount will be revised to ` 20 lakh from the existing ` 12 lakh for top Maoist leaders. The police have already identified at least 28 hardcore Maoists whose arrest would fetch rewards. While ` 20 lakh would be given for arrest of top leaders, arrest of 25 others will fetch between ` 3 lakh and ` 12 lakh.
With this, the reward money, offered by the Odisha Government, has become the highest. While Andhra Pradesh has provision of ` 12 lakh reward, the maximum amount announced by Chhattisgarh government is ` 7 lakh.
The amount fixed by the State Government towards reward money was ` 12 lakh for central committee members, ` 10 lakh for state committee members, ` 5 lakh for district committee members and ` 3 lakh for divisional committee members.