High vigil as maoists call for poll boycott

Malappuram: The district administration has started efforts to tackle the maoist menace in the wake of their recent call for poll boycott in tribal areas of the district. “We have decided to increase the presence of officials in tribal settlements in the coming days as part of the poll awareness campaign among them,” said district collector S. Venkatesapathi.

He said that the discussions were on with district Police to tackle the threat.
The collector also has plans to visit more tribal colonies as part of the Election Commission’s Systematic Voters Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP) programme to attract more tribal voters to the booths. The Collector with a team of top level district officials had visited Nedunkayam and Mundakkadavu colonies last week.

The Maoists had distributed pamphlets calling for boycott the assembly election on Sunday during the annual tribal festival at Eengar tribal settlement in the Karulayi forest.  According to the police, a team of Maoists has campaigned for poll boycott in tribal colonies and the pamphlets were under the letter head of CPI Maoist Nadukani local committee. A search operation also has done by a team of police led by the  Perinthalmanna DySP P.A Varghese.   The district administration has identified 30 critical polling locations in where the maoist threat is imminent.