KOCHI: To deal with rising Maoist activities in the state, the Kerala Police have recalibrated their strategy by recruiting nearly 70 tribal youth from suspected infested regions to be their eyes and ears in counter-insurgency operation.
The decisions on recalibration as well as tribal youth’s open recruitment through Public Service Commission were taken at a meeting of the top brass.
A proposal was made in 2013 to recruit tribal youth as home guards on Rs 500 daily wage and train them to gather inputs on Maoist activities in the state’s tribal belts. But the move faced stiff resistance as it was akin to Chhattisgarh’s Salwa Judum, which turned out to be a failure.
ADGP (Headquarters) S Ananthakrishnan said they had completed the first round of tribal youth recruitment. “We’ll decide on another round of recruitment after assessing the requirement. The recruitment’s main aim is to provide the tribal youth employment opportunity, raise their living standards and also make them part of the society’s mainstream.”
A senior police officer said the recruitment of tribal youth was based on strict procedures.
“We ensured only those youth who have been residing in tribal settlements in specified regions benefitted from the scheme. The force will make use of their knowledge on the terrain and also provide specific arms training and also engage in intelligence gathering,” the officer said.
Currently, the recruitment is specifically focused on youth belonging to Paniya and Kattunayakan tribes from settlements inside the Nilambur, Kallikkavu and Areacode forests in Malappuram district.
The recruitment will be a major boost to the anti-insurgency operations as the police, ever since CPI (Maoist) activities were reported in the state, were desperately trying to connect with the tribal population for timely inputs on movement of Maoist cadres inside the forest.