As many as 100 cadres of the People’s Liberation Guerilla Army (PLGA), an armed wing of the outlawed Communist Party of India, have surrendered before the Bihar police between 2013 to 2023, said Bihar’s Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) Jitendra Gangwar in a press conference on June 16.
Interacting with the media, ADGP Bihar, while emphasizing the positive effect of the surrender-cum rehabilitation policy of the State, said ” that as many as 96 cadres of the outlawed Naxal outfit have surrendered before the police under the State’s surrender-cum rehabilitation policy in effect since April 2013. As many as four Maoist cadres have also turned themselves before the police so far in the year 2023 taking the number of surrendered Maoist to 100.”
He further said “that as per the State’s rehabilitation policy, upon surrendering, the senior Maoist cadres have been provided with a financial aid of Rs five lakhs while the ordinary cadres get Rs 2.5 lakh. If the Maoist surrenders with a weapon, then there are different incentives as per the category of the weapons.
“The Maoist who surrender under the State’s policy are first sent to the rehabilitation centres for a period of three years where they learn different skills like carpentry, plumbing and others as per their interests and ability. The idea behind sending them to the rehabilitation centre is to train them so that they can be integrated into the mainstream later on. During their stay at the rehabilitation centre, they are also provided with a monthly allowance of Rs 10000”, said ADGP Jitendra Gangwar.
Further, citing the recent surrenders of the notorious Maoists under the State’s surrender cum rehabilitation policy Gangwar also shared the details of the financial help provided to senior Maoist cadres such as Arjun and Baleshwar Koda after they opted to surrender before the police in June last year.
It is to be noted that the Security forces in Bihar have been continuously running counter-insurgency operations lately, which has led to the surrender and arrest of many senior cadres, including a Central Committee (CC) member of the banned CPI Maoist.
Earlier, Bihar police, in a joint operation with personnel from CRPF, nabbed a CC member of the proscribed CPI Maoist, Mithlesh Mahto, from Gaya of Bihar in March 2022.
The arrest of Mithlesh Mahto was followed by the surrender of the notorious Baleshwar Koda alias Mukhiya Ji, a resident of Barhat police station limits of Jamui in Bihar, in June 2022. Baleshwar Koda is considered to be a seasoned Maoist against whom a total of 63 cases are pending at different police stations of the State.
These continuous counter-insurgency operations being run by the forces have ultimately led to curbing down the number of Maoist-affected districts of the State to 10 only, wherein also the significant presence of the ultras are only confined to a few districts like Gaya, Aurangabad and Jehanabad.
Let us recall that while hailing the success of the forces on the Maoist front in Bihar, the then DG of CRPF Kuldip Singh, in September last year, had claimed that the central-eastern State is now free from the clutches of Left Wing Extremism and the battle against the Maoist is in its last stages in neighbouring Jharkhand, hinting that the focus of the forces will be solely turned towards States like Chhattisgarh, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh where the ultras are still considered to have a strong presence.
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