RAIPUR: As cadres of the outlawed CPI (Maoist) increasingly surrender in Chhattisgarh’s strife-torn Bastar region, ensuring their safe and effective rehabilitation remains a key challenge.
The Vishnu Deo Sai government is expediting the creation of colonies equipped with basic amenities for the surrendered armed cadres of the banned outfit and their families, according to official sources. Efforts are underway to provide affordable housing through the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Gramin (PMAY-G) scheme, the sources added.
State Home Minister Vijay Sharma has written to Union Rural Development Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, urging him to relax certain norms to facilitate this initiative conceived by the Chhattisgarh government.
In his communication to the Centre, Sharma noted that over 10,000 members of surrendered Maoists, including families affected by insurgency violence, are to be settled in colonies around security base camps. The state government has requested special relaxations in the PMAY-G guidelines for constructing houses for the surrendered Maoist rebels, for whom a new rural settlement area will be designated.
Under the PMAY scheme, recipients must be listed in the Social, Economic, and Caste Census 2011. Surrendered Maoists, previously outside the mainstream, were not included in any government surveys or programs, resulting in their names being absent from the beneficiary list.
