Visakhapatnam: Seventeen militia members of the banned CPI Maoists’ Pedabayalu area committee in Alluri Sitharama Raju district surrendered on Tuesday in the presence of ASR district superintendent of police Amit Bardar and other police officials, including K. Dheeraj and P. Charian Raju of the CRPF.
According to a press release, these individuals had previously been involved in various offenses in Ginelakota, Landulu and Injari areas. Their decision to leave the Maoist movement has come in the wake of their disillusionment with the extremist ideology.
In addition, these Maoists have been influenced by community policing initiatives, which have provided employment opportunities to local youth through programmes, such as Spoorthy, Prerana and Nirman. Under Spoorthy, 600 students received training and 48 of them secured government jobs. Prerana initiative led to 1,150 students appearing for interviews, with 220 securing positions at TATA Electronics.
State government also incentivised the change by recently allocating ₹23 lakh to 23 surrendered Maoists, giving each of them ₹1 lakh, which further motivated the decision of Maoists to surrender.
During the surrender event, SP Amit Bardar asked remaining Maoists too to surrender and take advantage of government welfare schemes aimed at community development. He said those wishing to leave the Maoist movement and joining the mainstream can do so by voluntarily contacting district officials or area police stations.
