Sixty-one Maoist insurgents, including Communist Party of India (Maoist) politburo member Mallojula Venugopal Rao alias Sonu alias Bhupathi, laid down arms and surrendered before Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Wednesday at the Gadchiroli district police headquarters.
These Maoists include two Maoist state zonal committee members, 10 divisional committee members, and cadres from Maharashtra as well as Chhattisgarh. They handed over 54 weapons, including seven AK-47s, six self-loading rifles (SLRs) and six INSAS rifles. A few months ago, Rao’s wife Vimala Sidam alias Tarakka, who was also a Maoist leader, had surrendered to the police.
Congratulating the Gadchiroli police for its success, Fadnavis said, “For a month, our forces were involved in negotiations and talks on one hand, while anti-Maoist operations were on. Consistent efforts were being put in to convince him (Rao) to surrender. It was also made clear that the operations will not end. He was convinced. He even made a public declaration that Maoism is already over and that there is no alternative except to surrender.”
“The spinal cord of Maoism is now broken. The battle against Maoism is in its last stage now. We believe that other cadres in Chhattisgarh will also surrender in the coming days. The next challenge is that of urban Naxalism,” he said in Gadchiroli, announcing an award of Rs 1 crore for the Gadchiroli police and C60 commandos.
Fadnavis said Rao had expressed his wish to surrender before the Chief Minister.
“Even if he would have called me to the jungle, I would have gone. But this has been done in the Gadchiroli police headquarters. So I postponed all my programmes to come here (Gadchiroli) immediately. The police had given him word that the CM himself would come to witness the surrender. So I came,” Fadnavis said.
Fadnavis handed over copies of the Constitution of India to the surrendered Maoists and said that the surrender could happen because of the confidence of the Maoists in the government. He said that many surrendered Maoists were doing jobs in Gadchiroli in infrastructure projects, earning Rs 50,000 per month.
He said investments worth Rs 3 lakh crore are expected in the twin districts of Gadchiroli and Chandrapur. “The Gadchiroli district is being developed as a steel city. In fact Gadchiroli and neighbouring Chandrapur will receive investments to the tune of Rs 3 lakh crore and several lakhs jobs will be created.
“In fact, Lloyds Steel has assured training to those who have surrendered and help them to secure jobs as per their qualifications and skills,” Fadnavis said at the Maoist surrender ceremony.
He added that Gondwana University, Lloyds Metals & Energy as well as Curtin University of Western Australia have set up an institute to teach mining technology in Gadchiroli.
He said when he met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi, he assured the former that Gadchiroli would be transformed into a green steel hub.
“We will take care of the biodiversity and 5 crore trees are being planted in Gadchiroli. So far, we have already planted 40 lakh trees and we will plant one lakh trees by the end of the year,” Fadnavis added.