Six key cadres from the outlawed Communist Party of India (CPI) Maoist have surrendered before the Andhra Pradesh police on Thursday. The six-member team included four women. The Maoist cadres belonging to Andhra-Pradesh Odisha Border Special Zonal Committee (AOBSZC) were produced before the media by Andhra Pradesh Director General of Police (DGP) D Gautam Sawang. The Maoists, including four from Chhattisgarh, were involved in 127 offences including 17 murders over the past one and a half decades while two others are from Visakhapatnam district, police said, adding that all the six cadre members were all together, carrying a reward of Rs 16 lakh on their heads.
Those who laid down the arms include Pedabayalu-Korukonda Area Committee Secretary Chikkudu Chinna Rao alias Sudheer (32), Divisional Committee Member and Divisional Commander, Vanthala Vannu alias Mahita (25), and Area Committee Members, Madakam Somidi (25), and Madakam Manglu alias Deepak (21), also a protection team member. The two other female cadres, identified as Poyam Rukini alias Rinky (18) and Sodi Bheeme (18), were also working as protection team members.
Police said that Chinna Rao was involved in 93 offences including 14 murders and 11 gunfights. He was also involved in seven landmine blasts. Chinna Rao alias Sudheer's surrender is being seen as a blow to the outlawed party as he is a Division Committee Member of Pedabayalu-Korukonda area and is one among the few tribal leaders from this region.
The DGP said the Maoists decided to lay down the arms and join the mainstream due to dwindling support from the tribal population, lack of recruitment from tribal people and discrimination of tribal cadres by top leadership. He claimed that Maoists were losing support of the tribal people as the benefits of the government schemes are reaching the tribal people even in remote areas through volunteers. He said this had made it difficult for the extremists to sustain their campaign.
"Their cadres have depleted. The Maoist ideology has become redundant and irrelevant," he said. Sawang said that in the past, Maoists used to come to talk to tribals and settle local disputes, but now, the government is taking steps to solve their problems. The DGP said that the government has also given lands to tribal people and addressed their problems, adding that 3 lakh acres of land was identified to be given to tribal people and almost 20,000 families have got pattas (title deeds). "In the past, the land issue used to create a lot of heartburn but even this problem has been solved," he said.
The DGP said the Maoist cadres had depleted to 54 from 140 two years ago. There used to be two companies with 19 members in each but now the outfit has just one platoon comprising 10 members. The Andhra-Odisha Border area used to have eight committees in the past but now the number has come down to four, he added.
The police chief said that in 11 exchanges of fire during the last one year, 14 Maoists including DCMs lost their lives. Six important cadres were arrested and they included one DCM and one Special Zonal Committee member. A total of 32 cadres surrendered including a Special Zonal Committee Member and 3 DCMs. He appealed to Maoist cadres to come forward and take advantage of the surrender policy offered by the state government.
A report in The Hindu said that Maoists' recent state-wide bandh over alleged illegal mining of laterite and bauxite in the Agency areas of Visakhapatnam and East Godavari districts also saw a poor response. Earlier in June, as many as six Maoists, including a senior leader, were killed in an alleged encounter at Teegalametta forests of Koyyuru mandal that took place between Moaists and Greyhound special forces of the Andhra Pradesh police.
With IANS inputs