The Hindu : Karnataka / Hassan News : Mixed response to STF deployment in Kudremukh

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Dec 24, 2004

Karnataka

Karnataka - Hassan

Mixed response to STF deployment in Kudremukh

By Our Staff Correspondent

HASSAN, DEC. 23. The plans of deploying the Special Task Force (STF) in the Kudremukh area to counter naxalites, who have stepped up their activities in the region, has evoked a mixed response from naxalites and political parties.

According to police sources, the issue was discussed recently at a meeting of senior police officers in Bangalore.

The Additional Director-General of Police (Law and Order), Subhash Bharani, has been directed to work out the modalities. However, the Chief Minister, N. Dharam Singh, recently said that the Government had no plans to deploy the STF (which was engaged in operations against Veerappan) to curb the naxal activities in Kudremukh area.

He said that he considered the naxal issue as being a socio-economic problem.

Criticised

The Communist Party of India (Maoist) have criticised the plans of deploying the STF to curb their activities.

In a press release, the leaders of CPI (Maoist) have cautioned that they were ready to fight if the Government resorted to violent methods to contain them.

Criticising the police for equating the forest brigand with those fighting for the rights of the people, they said that instead of addressing the root of the problem, the Government was complicating the issue.

On one hand, the Government was inviting the leaders for talks and on the other, planning to deploy the STF in the area, they added.

The naxals were fighting on behalf of the tribal people, who did not want to be evacuated from the forest area, where they have been living for many years. If the Government found an amicable solution to their problems, the CPI (Maoist) might discontinue their fight against the Government.

Failure of the latter in doing so would force them to intensify their activities, they said.

Immediate concerns

They also said that there was no reason for them to trust the Government, which "changed its stand often."

Though they were aware that violence was not an answer to all problems, they were not prepared to lay down their arms.

Their immediate concerns included protecting the interest of the tribals in the Kudremukh area, ensuring minimum wages for landless labourers, releasing those working as bonded labourers, and abolition of land tenancy.

Delay

Criticising the delay of Government in implementing the Rs. 60 crore package, they said that they would continue their struggle until justice was delivered to the tribal people.

The Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha, which took exception to deploying the STF in the area, said that the plans indicated the escapist attitude of the Government. Leaders of the sangha recently said that deploying the STF would not help curb naxal activities.

It was imperative for the Government to address the issue at the grass root level.

They urged the Government not to vacate the tribals from the forest area.

Welcomed

The district unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has welcomed the proposal submitted by the Police Department to the Government regarding the deploying the STF in the Kudremukh area.

The district unit also urged the upgradation of nearly 10 police stations in Koppa and Sringeri area to contain the problem. The local people in the area felt that they were caught between the police and the naxals.

While the naxals approached the villagers for help in the night, the police interrogated them in the morning for being receptive to the naxals.

Forced

They also said that the exchange of fire between naxals and police in Barkana area recenlty, the aborted attempt to abduct the police constable, Muddappa, in Maghebylue, and attack on a villager, Chandrakanath, who according to the naxals was a police informant, might have forced the Police Department to opt for deploying STF in the Malnad region.

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