A mandal coordinator and village resource person, engaged in collection of data for NREGS, and sarpanch of Matham Bheemavaram village were allegedly detained by Maoists at Jyothulamamidi village on the outskirts of M. Bheemavaram village from Monday till Tuesday afternoon.
The incident came to light on Wednesday afternoon when the three had reached mandal headquarters Koyyuru and lodged a complaint with the police. The Maoists let off the three unharmed but took away a laptop, two biometric machines and a web camera from the NREGS staff. The equipment contained data collected from 45 villages.
Seven armed Maoists, reportedly belonging to Galikonda area committee, came to Jyothulamamidi as the Mandal Coordinator Ch. Raju and VRP Nageswara Rao were collecting data with the assistance of village sarpanch P. Dali Reddy. They told the NREGS staff and sarpanch that Maoists would not allow Government programmes to be implemented in the Visakha Agency. The Maoists told the NREGS staff and sarpanch not to leave the village till Tuesday afternoon.
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