The police administration on Tuesday fulfilled its promise to give funds to the former extremists, who surrendered before the police to join the mainstream under the scheme ‘Nai Disha’, but their kin were not satisfied as they were still waiting to get other facilities, including the land that was proposed to be provided under the surrender policy.
Ranchi SSP Saket Kumar Singh distributed cheques of their due amounts ranging between Rs50,000 to Rs1.5 lakh to the eight former extremists, who are on bail.
Despite this, the dreams of these people to lead a dignified life after surrendering before the police might not get fulfilled due to the lethargic attitude of the police department and the Government towards these people.
They are still waiting for their residential plots for constructing their own homes as promised by the State Government under the ‘Nai Disha’ surrender policy.
These people who are living at other places away from their homes due to security reasons demand that they need homes more than the money, as they have to face difficulty in finding rented accommodation for themselves.
As many as 19 Maoists had surrendered before the police till date who are still to get their due facilities declared by the police during the time of surrender.
“I got a cheque of Rs1.5 lakh today which was due since I had surrendered before the police but it would have been better if they had provided us plots as declared earlier by them,” said an erstwhile CPI (Maoist) member Haripado Mahto. Mahto was an active member of the Kundan Pahan group during 2004-20011.
Mahto has been living in a rented accommodation in Ranchi who, originally hails from Bundu. “As we have threat to our lives, we do not go to our homes and are staying at different places in rented accommodation,” added Mahto. Rs1500 are not enough to sustain ourselves in a city like Ranchi, he said.
Similarly, Reshmi Devi also finds it difficult to sustain her with the Government support and makes it difficult for her to meet her two ends meet. She is still living at her parents’ place due to security reasons.
“It’s difficult to fulfill the daily needs of our day to day life with the money we are getting by the Government as we cannot find work anywhere due to our previous track records,” said Reshmi Devi of Bundu who had surrendered on May 18, 2011.
The SSP, however, rejecting their allegations said that government is serious to rehabilitate these people and are being paid their dues according to the provisions of ‘Nai Disha’.
As per the rules, payments could be made in three installments and are to be paid Rs1500 as house rents till they are not allotted plots for constructing their houses.
In addition to that there are provisions to provide education expenses to their children till graduation, he added.
Only19 Maoists have surrendered since August 5, 2010 but despite several efforts made by the State Government, they failed to attract any Maoist to surrender after March 23, 2012.