Even as the second round of talks between interlocutors was set to begin at Raipur, outlawed Communist Party of India (Maoist) circulated a three page note early on Friday morning, listing in detail their perception about the problems being faced by the tribals and incidents of alleged atrocities by the security forces in tribal Bastar region of Chhattisgarh.
A three page note "why we detained the collector", issued by CPI (Maoist) South Bastar regional committee secretary Ganesh Uike said they were forced to issue such a statement to set the record straight after a group of so-called intellectuals, supported by vested interests, unleashed a propaganda to whip up sympathy in favour of the Sukma collector.
"These people need to understand the reality on the ground and the manner in which the people are suffering state's repression and the role of district collector in it", Uike claimed alleging that it was during the tenure of Alex Paul Menon that a tribal youth Podium Mada was first tortured in police custody and later murdered. Later, this murder was passed off as a suicide in police custody, he alleged.
According to the Maoist release, another youth Podyam Sanna was picked up from his house at Pollampalli on February 11. Before the formation of Sukma district, police in erstwhile Dantewada district picked up a woman Soni Sodi from village Jabeli and subjected to third degree methods. But the district collector Alex Paul Menon did not utter a word when the then superintendent of police of Ankit Garg was bestowed with the President's police medal on Republic Day, it alleged.
Describing Chhattisgarh government's on-going "gram Suraj'-a village outreach programme-- as a farce, the Maoist leader alleged that such a campaign was being carried out at the behest of the World Bank. He said the CPI (Maoist) had earlier given a call for boycott of gram Suraj campaign. He also alleged that the government machinery, which also includes the district collector, were in fact trying to extend benefits to corporate houses by trying to hand over Bastar's rich natural resources to them.
Alleging that nearly 2000 villagers were languishing in jails of Dantewada, Jagdalpur, Raipur, and Rajnandgaon, Uike said 700 people were stuffed inside the Dantewada prison, which has a capacity to accommodate only 150 inmates. Besides, the rebels also alleged that the police had slapped false cases against a large number of people and the security were continuously violating human rights in the tribal areas.
Uike alleged that the security forces had launched an operation code named as "Operation Vijay " in Abujmarh in March this year and attacked the houses of villagers and destroyed their houses. He said the so-called intellectuals and others, demanding release of collector Menon, should first study whether the report submitted by the district collector at the meeting of "left wing extremism affected districts", organised by the Centre, was in the interest of the poor tribals of the region.
Source : http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Maoists-justify-abduciton-of-Chhattisgarh-collector-Alex-Paul-Menon/articleshow/12893876.cms
