The Union home ministry has offered a lucrative surrender policy for Maoists offering `1.5 lakh to each surrendering area commander and extra if the cadres are surrendering with weapons. The sum has been increased 15 times from the existing `10,000 being offered by the MHA as reimbursement under the surrender and rehabilitation policy to the Naxal-infested states. Apart from the fresh incentive, the government will also pay a monthly stipend of `2,000 to each surrendered Naxalite for three years to sustain his livelihood. The proposal is being sent to the finance ministry for approval.
Moreover, the states’ individually can offer more money if they want to bring the Maoists to the mainstream. Atleast 350 Naxals have surrendered since last year and taking benefits of the government incentives.
The fresh proposal was discussed by the MHA on Friday at a meeting of operational heads of Central armed police forces and state police forces of nine Naxal-affected states where they were asked to draw fresh maps and mark hamlets and habitations in the so-called “liberated zones’’ to avoid “collateral damage’’ during anti-Naxal operations. It was pointed out in the meet that the Survey of India maps may not give the exact locations of such habitations which have never been visited in last twenty years and have shifted location.
The use of satellite imagery and related techniques to determine the coordinates of all such habitations is being examined by the MHA. The move follows the recent killing of 19 people in anti-Maoist operation in Chhattisgarh where Naxals used “human shields’’ during encounter with security forces.