On Sunday, eleven Maoists, including a senior leader Nakul surrendered to the police in the Kalahandi district of Odisha and this was considered a grand step in the current attempt by the state to curb Left Wing Extremism. What happened was the surrender in the presence of Y B Khurania, the Director General Police of Odisha at the Reserve Police Lines, Bhawanipatna.
Nakul, a Divisional Committee Member (DCM) of Maoist organisation and a Maharashtrian native, was rewarded with a 22 lakh on his head. The other 10 who surrendered cadres included Area Committee members and the rest were party cadres. The amount of the reward that was announced to the entire group by the police was a collective one comprising 63.25 lakh.
In the surrender, the Maoists relinquished a notable amount of weapons and ammunition, among which were an AK-47 rifle, an INSAS rifle, four Self-Loading Rifles (SLR), four single-shot firearms and a 12-bore gun as well as high amounts of ammunition. The group was said to have been active in the Basdhara-Ghumsar-Nagabali division, which was active in the Kalahandi, Rayagada and Kandhamal district.
In the speech, DGP Khuronia claimed that the defection of a high profile cadres such as Nakul is a sign of the gradually declining power of Maoist outfit in the area. He attributed the survival of operations by security forces, such as Special Operations Group, District Voluntary Force, Central Reserve Police Force, and Border Security Force, to the destruction of extremist networks.
Other Director General (Anti-Naxal Operations) Sanjeeb Panda added that following the recent surrender only approximately 15 armed Maoist cadras are estimated to be in active mode in the state, with the majority being along the state-border in Kandhamal.
The authorities also establish that the cadres that are surrendered will get financial support as per the state rehabilitation policy. The overall compensation scheme is estimated to be about 1.23 crores, including other incentives of 60 lakh of money to motivate the employees to rejoin regular society.
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