‘Forest officials at Naxal meets’
The home ministry on Saturday pulled up some forest officials posted in Naxalite-affected areas for allegedly not alerting local police about “happenings” there and even attending meetings organised by the Maoists.
“The forest officials being close to the tribal areas know what is happening in the forests. They can alert us (police) about what is happening in the field. But this is not happening,” home secretary G.K. Pillai said at a national conference here on forestry administration in Left-wing extremism affected areas.
Addressing the 35 district forest officials (DFOs) from various Naxalite-hit regions across the country, Mr Pillai rued that even as Maoists were setting up base in jungles, gathering arms, forest officials “do not cooperate” in giving the required information. Reminding the forest officials that CPI (Maoist) has been declared as a banned organisation and it is a terrorist group, he said, “Yet we find that some forest officials at various levels are attending their meetings.” By attending the meetings, they are giving official recognition to illegal activities of the Naxals, Mr Pillai said. To corroborate his allegations, he cited an instance in which a forest official had in his official vehicle gone to attend a meeting organised by the extremists at Sunabeda sanctuary in Orissa in July. He said, “Somewhere there is a need to draw a line. We know that you are most vulnerable, you are in the midst of them and most susceptible, you are unarmed. But there is a need to discuss (the issue) and find a solution.” However, forest officials had their side of the story too. While rejecting the allegations, they claimed that policemen were nowhere in sight during any Maoist attack. —PTI
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