Police step up vigil in Bhadrachalam Agency

Villagers in Chhattisgarh ‘protest’ against proposed police camp

Maoists criticise the move to set up police base camps in Agency areas terming them as a repressive measure to curb Maoist movement and drive away Adivasis from forests.

Tension escalated in the interior villages of Charla mandal, especially those located in proximity to Chhattisgarh’s Bijapur district, as the police intensified vigil in the border areas to thwart alleged attempts by Maoists to orchestrate protests against the proposed new police base camps along the Telangana-Chhattisgarh border.

The intensified vigil comes in the wake of the ongoing relay protests by several villagers of Pujari Kanker gram panchayat in neighbouring Chhattisgarh’s Bijapur district against a new police base camp allegedly proposed to be set up near their village.

Police blame the Maoist rebels behind the protests in the strife-torn south Bastar region of Chhattisgarh.

Having set up a base camp at Chennapuram in Charla mandal close to the inter-State border with Chhattisgarh recently, the Telangana police is mulling setting up of two more such camps one at Pusuguppa and another at Vaddipeta or Unjupalli, sources said.The move forms the crux of the multipronged strategy of the police to extend outreach activities to win over the hearts of local tribal people of border villages and step up joint anti-Maoist operations in coordination with the Central armed police forces (CAPFs), the Greyhounds, and other agencies concerned, sources added. However, some Maoist leaders have issued statements in the recent past criticising the move to set up police base camps terming them as a repressive measure to curb Maoist movement, drive away Adivasis from forests and deprive them of their rights over “jal, jameen and jungle.”

However, police strongly rebutted the allegations and defended the move to set up police camps as imperative to ensure peaceful atmosphere in the restive inter-state border region to usher in development. Members of the outlawed CPI (Maoist) have summoned several Adivasis of Kurnapalli and Yerraboru villages of Charla mandal to Puttapadu forest area in Chhattisgarh three days ago and detained them for two days, Charla Circle Inspector of Police Ashok said.

The rebels let them off on Saturday after bringing pressure on them to hold protests against the proposed new police base camps in the mandal, he said, alleging that the ultras were trying to mislead tribal people by unleashing a false propaganda to hinder development in remote tribal areas.