The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Maoists welcome the home-displaced

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Sunday, May 25, 2008
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Maoists welcome the home-displaced

D. Chandra Bhaskar Rao

Villagers adopt wait and watch policy as village heads, who responded to their call earlier, are paying a heavy price

— Photo: G. N. Rao

Home alone: A child waiting for his mother to return from work in a makeshift shelter at the base camp in Konta of Dantewada district in Chhattisgarh.

KONTA (Chhattisgarh): “Gaon dekhneka mankarta” says Sarium Mukesh, a tribal youth who left Muraliguda village two years ago to take shelter in the State-run base camp at Konta two. The Maoists who had forced him and his people to desert their homes for siding with the Salwa Judum, are now ready to welcome back the internally displaced persons (IDPs).

Safe passage

The tribal families are often being contacted by the Maoist squads and assured of a safe passage to their villages and all their help to revive their lost fortune. The Maoists had put up banners and posters to this effect. A majority of the 750 families living in the Konta base camp are willing to go back to their villages.

But it is difficult to believe the Maoists. The “Patels and Pujaris (village heads) who had responded to their call earlier, paid a high price, says Tellam Bhima, former Sarpanch from Banda, agency village in the Maoist heartland. He gave up all his properties in the village and living on the meagre supplies received from the camp organisers.

“We, in fact, intend to go back to our village. We are waiting to see to what extent the Maoists keep their word,” he said. Women from the camp have started frequenting the deserted villages. They are able to stay there for a day or two giving a fresh lick of paint to the walls. The dalams caused no harm.

The Salwa Judum leadership, which was in total control of the base camps in Bastar, is not ready to allow the IDPs to go back to the villages. The police personnel who had been interacting with them on day-to-day basis, assured them of sending them back from the camp once the normality restored. It did not materialize so far because of the escalating violence, thanks to the show down between the Maoist and Salwa Judum.

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