Telangana state's 'Maoists' problem

[JAYAM_NANI]

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2014-02-10/india/47200097_1_maoist-movement-security-agencies-north-telangana

 

evaranna kodiga article motham ikkada paste cheyagalara plz

[Telugodu Raa]

BANGALORE: From having excess funds at the peak of the movement during 2001-03, the North Telangana region has become a place of miniscule collection point for Maoists, even as apprehensions over the cadres becoming more powerful rents the corridors of security agencies and North Block in Delhi.

According to documents obtained from the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), North Telangana Special Zonal Committee (NTSZC), in the period between 2001-2003 (October) had an expenditure of Rs 4,42,51,256, while the income generated was Rs 6,20,48,500.

NTSZC, is a special area committee formed by the Maoist leadership just like Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee (DKSZC), West Bengal State Committee (WBSC) and others to decentralize.

"They had a surplus budget with an excess of Rs 1,79,27,926 besides 562 gold biscuits valuing in lakhs of rupees," the document says.

The data is from a paper commissioned by the MHA from external researchers, who have been closely studying the Maoist movement. However, a senior Delhi-based researcher monitoring the Maoist movement closely for more than a decade, insisting anonymity, said: "...Right now, their annual collection is miniscule. It barely comes up to Rs 5-crore, and there seems to be no excess budget."

Allaying apprehensions about a possibility of a stronger Maoist group in the region, the researcher said: "As long as political parties do not have unholy alliances with the Maoists, effective policing should not be a problem, as the security agencies already have domain knowledge required for operations to curb the rise of Maoists."

This, experts said is a drop from the past few years. Describing the method of collection and storing of money by Maoists, the document, points at a well-conceived and efficient system sees Maoist cadres across the country mobilize over Rs 140 crore annually.

The Maoists, the document says, have a meticulous system of accounting, and, are very good at book-keeping. While a lot of money is got through extortion, the document reveals that t the target for such acts range from government servants, infrastructure and telecom companies, educational institutions, illegal miners, opium traders, et al.

Other than this money is also collected "...as membership fees, from supporters and sympathisers, political leaders, etc" the document reveals. Sources in the intelligence department and anti-Naxal force in Karnataka, partially agreeing with the researcher believe that the movement can be controlled provided there is support from the political leadership.

But they see enough scope in the environment that will be created for an uprising. Former Naxalites' view Vijaya Bhaskar Reddy, former chief courier to Naxal patriarch Kondapalli Seetharamaiah (1982-89) and responsible for his security, told ToI: "If there is a separate state, one should understand that the strength of the police force diminishes. With the basic problems plaguing the region remaining unchanged, there are all the indications that the (naxal) movement will grow in strength."

Now retired, Reddy was one part of the first batch to be trained by top Naxal leader Mollajulla Koteswara Rao alias Kishenji, who was killed in an encounter in 2011. Reddy had conducted operations in Bangalore, Mysore, Hyderabad and Madras.

Reddy had undergone arms training for three months under Kishenji in the Dandakaranya forest that stretches across Orissa, Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh in 1979. Reddy, however, concedes that the Maoist leadership in Andhra Pradesh has weakened.