Centre to reward naxals ready to lay down arms
The Union government on Wednesday told a high-power meeting of Chief Secretaries and DGPs from Naxal affected states that it is prepared to offer up to Rs 5 lakhs for extremists ready to lay down arms.
The meeting, chaired by Union Home Minister P Chidambaram, was discussing a uniform policy of surrender of Naxals and proposed Rs 5 lakh to anyone laying down a Light Machine Gun and Rs 3 lakh for those giving up AK 47 rifles.
Sources said the meeting also discussed lack of intelligence from the Naxal region –the “uneasy calm” and the reduction of information flow from the rebel camp to a trickle.
Around 71,000 Para-military forces have been deployed to fight the Naxals in the areas where their activities have been found higher.
While reiterating the need to have a strict caution on human rights violations in the conflict against the Maoists, the meeting also pulled up Jharkhand for not acting against the rebels, sources said.
Meanwhile, former Home Secretary G K Pillai told a roundtable that police are being “used” by all political parties for their own interests.
Answering questions over lack of police reforms by the government, the former bureaucrat said: “Police is an instrument to keep any political party in power.” He also added: “vested interests control police.”
