KARIMNAGAR: In order to prevent innocent rural youth from joining the naxalite fold, the district police have embarked upon an ambitious task of providing employment to the rural youth as home guards in the district.

Accordingly, the police have provided employment to about 120 and odd youth mostly from the interior forest-dominated villages. Majority of the youth were from Manthani forest belt in the east division and the remaining from the west division in Sircilla division.

The police, after selection, have provided training to them and gave them postings in various police station limits.

The naxalites, unable to digest this act, have targeted a newly recruited home guard and his parents in Stambampalli village of Adavi Mutharam mandal recently and warned him of dire consequences if he continued in the post.

Freshly, the CPI-Maoist leader Ramesh alias Konkati Venkati had warned the rural youth of serious action if they continue in the home guards' profession. He alleged that the police have been using the newly recruited home guards to check the naxalite movement in the forest region and warned the home guards of killing them if they continued in the job.

Up in arms

But, the villagers of Manthani division are up in arms against the naxalites for obstructing the development of local youth. "What is wrong if we do the home guard job to eke our livelihood when we do not find any other alternative? The naxalites are not allowing any industries to come up in the region to provide employment to the local youth. Even as the Singareni authorities have planned to open coal mines in Tadicherla to provide employment to the locals, the naxalites have destroyed the equipment of Singareni forcing them to stop the work," the villagers bemoaned.

"When they had not allowed any development in this forest region or provided us any employment, who has given them the right to kill local youth for joining the Home Guards Department? We will not tolerate their (naxalite's) activities," the villagers of interior Koyyur mandal said.

Protecting home guards

Meanwhile, the district police machinery is also taking all measures to protect the newly recruited home guards in the district. "We have provided employment to the rural youth of the interior villages only to uplift them and develop them economically.

The home guards usually do the general policing, bandobust duties only and they would not be used for the anti-naxalite operations as we have special force to deal with them," said a police officer.

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