Telangana: Rehabilitation policy driving Maoist surrenders, says DGP Anand
Mulugu, Aug 10 (TNT): Telangana DGP C V Anand on Monday said the state’s rehabilitation policy was playing a key role in encouraging Maoist cadres to give up armed struggle and return to the mainstream.
Speaking to media persons after senior CPI (Maoist) leader Kakarla Samatha alias Madhavi, Shakeela and Durga, surrendered before the police, Anand said coordinated efforts by the Telangana Police and the Union government had significantly weakened Maoist influence in erstwhile strongholds.
The DGP handed over a ₹20 lakh rehabilitation assistance cheque to Samatha and appealed to CPI (Maoist) General Secretary Muppala Lakshmana Rao alias Ganapathi, his wife and other senior underground leaders to renounce violence and join the democratic mainstream.
According to police, Samatha joined the Maoist movement in 1985 after being influenced by Left-wing extremism in the Visakhapatnam region.
During her underground career, she worked in the Hyderabad Committee, Nallamala, Uttar Pradesh Area Committee, Gujarat Golden Corridor Committee, Maharashtra Area Committee and Karnataka-Maharashtra Special Zonal Committee.
She was also involved in ideological and documentation activities, including drafting Central Committee documents, preparing policy material, translating party literature, writing on women’s issues and conducting cadre orientation programmes.
She also served as a Central Committee staff member attached to Maoist leader Ganapathi, police said.
Anand said the rehabilitation policy was aimed at facilitating the reintegration of surrendered Maoists through financial assistance, healthcare, livelihood support and self-employment opportunities.
Health protection cards had also been issued to eligible beneficiaries, he said.
So far, 23 surrendered Maoists had received financial assistance totalling nearly ₹2 crore under the policy, irrespective of their rank in the organisation, Anand said.
He said the objective was to help surrendered cadres rebuild their lives with dignity and prevent them from returning to the underground movement.
Explaining the decision to hold the programme in Mulugu, Anand said the district had once been a major Maoist corridor along the Telangana-Chhattisgarh border.
Interactions with surrendered cadres had helped police understand issues related to rehabilitation, pending cases and reintegration, he said.
The state government would coordinate with the Centre and the Chhattisgarh government wherever required to resolve such issues, the DGP added.
Senior police officials, including Multi Zone-I IG Chandrasekhar Reddy, Intelligence IG Karthikeya, Ramagundam Police Commissioner Ambar Kishore Jha, Intelligence SP Sindhu Sharma, Mulugu SP Sudhir Ramnath Kekan, ASP Manan Bhatt and SIB officials attended the programme.
TNT KM
