HYDERABAD: Even as security forces push hard into the forests of Chhattisgarh to smoke out the last Naxal strongholds, a number of surrendered cadres in neighbouring Telangana say they have received a raw deal from government. They say they are happy to have ended a life of playing hide and seek . But since laying down their arms, government officials have started playing hide and seek with them each time they ask for help.
A big grouse the surrendered Naxals have is that they have not been given agricultural land. Farming is the only skill they have and in the absence of land, they have been reduced to doing odd jobs.
Meet Saralamma (name changed), who was once with the banned CPI (M), as a divisional committee member (DCM) and was married to a prominent Central Committee (CC) member (who died of Covid). She had herself lost an eye in a shootout with security forces. Saralamma surrendered in 2021 after 27 years as a Maoist in the hope of turning her life around. Three years on, she has been forced to become an agriculture labourer and says she is tired of making rounds to various officials in Mahabubabad seeking a residential plot and an acre of agricultural land .
“I am not even given widow pension. When I applied, district authorities asked me to produce my husband’s death certificate when the world knew he died in the Chhattisgarh forests working for Maoists. How can I get the death certificate?” she asks.
Police officials promptly pay reward money as soon as Maoist cadres surrender. But most of those who TOI spoke to said that after being handed the cheque, they were left to fend for themselves. Many suffer health problems.
Venkatesham (name changed), a former DCM from Mahabubabad and now a gig worker delivering food in Hyderabad, says he gets a cold response from officials whenever he asks them about the farmland he was promised . “They make us wait for hours. And the stock reply we get is: there is no govt land to spare. I feel let down. For the sake of my wife and children, I have shifted to Hyderabad,” he says.
The surrendered Naxals blame revenue officials for playing truant. Till 2018, there have been instances of former Naxals managing to get hold of a piece of land but since then their requests for sanction of govt land have fallen on the deaf ears of officials, they claim. Some tried their luck by getting in touch with political leaders, but with little success.
Revenue officials claimed they treat each surrendered Maoist separately and decide the package accordingly. “The relief and rehabilitation issue is dealt with at the collectorate level. But one should also remember that land has become dearer with steep rise in prices,” a senior official said.
Some officials point out the assignment committee does not exist anymore. On alleged apathy of tahsildars and making surrendered Naxals run from pillar to post around govt offices, a top official said: “If there are any specific cases, we will get them verified.”