The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Don't push us to the wall: surrendered naxals

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Dec 09, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Don't push us to the wall: surrendered naxals

By B. Chandrashekhar

ANANTAPUR, DEC. 8. "We turned to extremism due to various reasons, including the desire to serve society, but we came out dejected. Now, we are in all sorts of problems like harassment by the police, court cases and lack of livelihood. Don't create circumstances forcing us to look at naxalism again.''

This was the opinion expressed by most of the surrendered naxalites who attended the counselling conducted by the police and revenue departments here on Tuesday. Family members of naxalites, who are still working for the outfit, were also vocal against harassment by the police.

The grievances ventilated both by the surrendered naxalites and the families of serving naxalites could well serve as eye-openers to the police and revenue administration. They also highlighted the shortcomings in the existing system, due to which they were forced to look at an alternative system for solving the problems.

For Yellanna alias Nagaraju of Y. Rampuram village in Uravakonda mandal, who worked for the naxal outfit for three years, "atrocities, suppression and untouchability in the village'' forced him to join the party. "Police even refused to register a case when I complained,'' he recollected. He joined the outfit to take revenge for the insults he had undergone.

"Had the police done justice to us I may not have turned to the party. Several youth like me may have done the same, had they got justice from the administration,'' he opined. He requested the Government to bring in a law to lift all cases on surrendered naxalites. His repeated representations to the officials for financial assistance had also failed to help him.

Naxalism was an accident for Eeswaraiah of Chabala village in Vajrakarur mandal, who worked as a dalam member. He was attracted by the speeches of dalams visiting their village regularly.

He came out on personal reasons. "But, I am experiencing only physical freedom in the absence of any kind of rehabilitation,'' he said. He wants the Government to come out with a GO on rehabilitation.

Tough life

"Life has become difficult as nobody likes to give work to persons like me, due to my background,'' he explained. He also stressed the necessity for withdrawal of cases for free living. Attending two cases on a single day without having money even to meet the transportation charges was like hell, he said.

For Bhagyamma alias Ramanjinamma of Kuderu, denial of cultivation of ceiling land allotted to them by a landlord had forced her to join the outfit. She worked for the party from 1992 to 2003. She was able to cultivate the land now, but there was no help from the Government after surrender. "Harassment by the police still haunts me,'' she said.

Denial of Government schemes to the eligible unemployed youth by politicians forced Ramamohan of Thallimadugula village in Kanaganapalli mandal to join the party. "All the sanctioned schemes were shared by the politicians and I wanted to solve the problems of the people by joining the party.'' But he found no freedom there too. He came out when the dalam turned down his proposal to marry another dalam member.

Varied reasons

According to the brother of Ramamohan Reddy of Chandragiri in Penukonda mandal, who is still working as the Penukonda dalam commander, he took to naxalism to oppose the excesses of ROC. "Our village is being denied all development schemes due to the naxal link,'' he noted.

The case of Aruna of Kalagalla village in Kuderu mandal is different. She was attracted to the dalam by the ballads of the naxalites. She surrendered after working for the party from 1999 to 2003, as the police were harassing her parents. The fear of police cases still persists with her.

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