Pro-Maoist Chasi Mulia Adivasi Sangh (CMAS) chief Nachika linga has rejected the offer of the police administration to surrender and join the mainstream, according to reports.
He said he would not give up his fight till the Narayanpatna and Bandhugaon areas in Koraput district, where the CMAS is active, becomes free of liquor and bonded labour and all the tribal land losers get back their paternal lands. These areas would witness return of peace if the land dispute issues are settled, he said from an undisclosed hideout.
linga, in his reaction to the recent distribution of blankets and television sets by the Director General of Police in Narayanpatna, said this would not serve any purpose for the police. The police should distribute land and not blankets to the landless to bring normalcy in the area, he argued.
linga, wanted by the police, came down heavily on laxmipur BJD MlA Jhina Hikaka, alleging that the latter failed to keep his promise which he made while being released. Hikaka was freed because he is a tribal, but he has not raised any issue relating to tribals in the Assembly since his release last year, linga said.
The people would decide Hikaka’s fate for his “betrayal” , the CMAS leader said. The money being spent on the security personnel should be used for development of Narayanpatna and Bandhugaon, he said.
Police claimed that the support base of CMAS and CPI(Maoist) is fast eroding in the region with a large number of CMAS cadres having already left the outfit and more and more villagers coming out to share information about the Sangh activists and the Maoists with the police as they suffered a lot at the hands of the ultras.