RAIPUR: The more surrendered Maoists there are, the better would be circumstances for them and their inhabited village, cites a new tactical move of the Chhattisgarh police.
To add impetus to the ongoing anti-naxal campaign ‘Lon Varatu’ (return to your home/village)—recently launched by the police in an edgy district of Dantewada, the villages that shows up with the maximum number of surrendered Maoists would stand rewarded.
Any tribal village with a minimum of ten surrendered cadres will get a tractor and other equipment for agriculture practice free of cost for their subsistence. After renouncing the banned CPI (Maoist) the cadres are willing to undertake farming and cultivation in their villages through creating creating their self-help group (SHG). Such campaign, the Dantewada police believe would be instrumental in re-educating the Maoist rebels engaged in the virtual war against the state to realise the “hollow ideology of left-wing extremism”.
“Usually we find SHG comprised only of women. But first time, Bastar is witnessing the creation of SHGs of surrendered Maoists with both males and females as members. The tractor and other agriculture equipment would be provided to them free through the panchayats. Besides they would be given vocational training suited to the local needs and further monitor the development of their hamlets”, said Dr Abhishek Pallava, Dantewada superintendent of police.
After the ultras quit their organisation, the next big challenge remains to suitably rehabilitate them and ensure the surrendered rebels are not lured or coerced again by Maoist leaders to return.
Tractors have recently been procured for three villages, the SP said and further added that the move is likely to counter the Maoist propaganda used to caution against the surrender with a narration that those who quit would either be forced to work with police or remain out of work.
There are many rebels who do not wish to be part of the police force after their laying down their arms. “Neither every surrendered Maoist willing to work with the security force nor are there enough vacancies to accommodate them”, Pallava, who did his MD from AIIMS Delhi in 2009, said.
Dantewada police decided to initially identify those villages where no major threat exists that may jeopardise the objective, remain close to a security camp or police station and do not pose problem for the government staff or the police to access.
“The plan hopefully should propel diffusion with an impact going across to interior villages having strong presence of Maoists and pave the way for more cadres to surrender”, opined the district police chief.
Dantewada continues to be among the worst Maoist-affected districts in the conflict zone of Bastar.