Police survey of Dantewada villages: ‘Do Naxalites maintain conferences? Do they reside right here? Yes or no?’

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The police in Dantewada has began periodic surveys to determine the character and degree of presence of Maoists in villages of the district.

The first ‘Panchayat-wise Naxal Sensitization Survey’ (Panchayat-wise Naxal Sensitivity Survey) was performed in January this yr and once more in July. Dantewada Police plans to conduct survey twice yearly from all 149 gram panchayats of the district.

Some of the questions within the survey are: “Do armed Naxalites hold meetings in your village? Do armed Naxalites live in the village? Does the village have basic facilities like electricity, water, road or school?”

The query is whether or not Naxalite incidents had been registered within the space over the last one yr, and whether or not the panchayat representatives of the village lived within the village.

The survey is the brainchild of Dantewada Superintendent of Police Abhishek Pallav, and goals to gather knowledge based mostly on which gram panchayats might be labeled into inexperienced, yellow and pink zones – inexperienced one denotes Naxal-free zones, yellow one Naxalite is a delicate space, and Red Naxal being a really delicate space.

We declare that the dominance of Naxalites in villages is reducing, however there isn’t any knowledge to assist this. “We are trying to conduct this survey every six months to ensure that we have an understanding of the area,” Pallav stated.

Respondents – sarpanchs, academics, anganwadi staff, or authorities functionaries aside from villagers – are anticipated to reply “yes” or “no” questions.

If all of the questions associated to Maoists are answered in “No”, the village is said as a ‘Green’ village. If the reply to any one of many questions is “yes”, the village turns into a ‘yellow’ village. To mark a village as ‘pink’, villagers and authorities officers should reply questions 1, 4, and 5 within the survey – which ask whether or not the village has recorded a Naxalite incident previously yr. and whether or not armed Naxalites had visited and/or stayed within the village – with “Yes”.

“In inexperienced zones, we get round 15-20 folks to fill within the survey. “Villages where fewer people are willing to be surveyed, which we already know are in areas with Maoist presence, automatically become ‘red’ villages,” Pallav stated.

According to the Dantewada police, the state of affairs has improved because the baseline survey was performed in January. The police then registered 33 pink villages, 42 yellow villages and 74 inexperienced villages. By July, these numbers had risen to 26, 34 and 89 for the pink, yellow and inexperienced villages, respectively.

The 15 new inexperienced villages embody Gamawada and eight different villages in Dantewada block, two villages in Geedam block and one village in Kuakonda block of the district.

“This mapping is helping us to find out which area is most sensitive, and which area needs more intervention from the administration. From our questionnaire we are also trying to find out how many villages are members of [Naxal] Leading organizations active among them. This will also reduce the animosity towards the police, as the villagers want their areas to be declared green,” Pallav stated.

He stated a extra complete 100-question survey is being developed to fine-tune the small print of villages turning inexperienced, to assemble extra suggestions on the police’s findings.

Bastar Inspector General of Police Sundarraj Pattilingam stated the evaluation of the presence of Maoists in a district just isn’t new, although the naming of the areas could also be totally different.

“It helps us to search out out if our police is working, and in addition helps us to determine the place to mobilize DRGs (Anti-Naxal District Reserve Guard), and the place police stations handle their areas. can do. This is a course of to be finished in any respect ranges – on the nationwide degree, inside the state and in particular person districts,” the IGP stated.

Congress Lok Sabha MP from Bastar Deepak Baij stated he was not conscious of the findings of the police survey. “I came to know about the survey through the media. I will be able to comment once the survey is completed,” Badge stated.

Congress chief Chavindra Karma, son of late Mahendra Karma, who was killed within the 2013 Naxal assault in Darbha, stated the police had been reaching past the bounds. “How is the police, which is claiming that Maoism has come down, conducting such a survey? Why is the income division or another division not accumulating this data? He requested.

Chavindra’s sister Tulika Karma, who can be a Congress chief, stated: “It is essential to search out out who’s conducting the survey and the way a lot data they’ve of the realm. It is sweet to know the place the presence of Maoists is low, however a reliable authority who’s impartial must conduct the survey.

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With inputs from TheIndianEXPRESS

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