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By:

Abhijit Mulye

21 August 2024 at 11:29:11 am

Gadchiroli SP declares Maoist menace ‘almost over’

Mumbai: In a resounding statement signalling a historic shift, Gadchiroli Superintendent of Police (SP) Neelotpal has declared the district, once the dark heart of the ‘Red Corridor,’ is on the verge of becoming completely free of the Naxal menace. The SP expressed absolute confidence in the complete eradication of the banned CPI (Maoist) presence, noting that the remaining cadres have dwindled to a mere handful. “There has been a sea change in the situation,” SP Neelotpal stated,...

Gadchiroli SP declares Maoist menace ‘almost over’

Mumbai: In a resounding statement signalling a historic shift, Gadchiroli Superintendent of Police (SP) Neelotpal has declared the district, once the dark heart of the ‘Red Corridor,’ is on the verge of becoming completely free of the Naxal menace. The SP expressed absolute confidence in the complete eradication of the banned CPI (Maoist) presence, noting that the remaining cadres have dwindled to a mere handful. “There has been a sea change in the situation,” SP Neelotpal stated, highlighting the dramatic turnaround. He revealed that from approximately 100 Maoist cadres on record in January 2024, the number has plummeted to barely 10 individuals whose movements are now confined to a very small pocket of the Bhamragad sub-division in South Gadchiroli, near the Chhattisgarh border. “North Gadchiroli is now free of Maoism. The Maoists have to surrender and join the mainstream or face police action... there is no other option.” The SP attributes this success to a meticulously executed multi-pronged strategy encompassing intensified anti-Maoist operations, a robust Civic Action Programme, and the effective utilisation of Maharashtra’s attractive surrender-cum-rehabilitation policy. The Gadchiroli Police, especially the elite C-60 commandos, have achieved significant operational milestones. In the last three years alone, they have neutralised 43 hardcore Maoists and achieved a 100 per cent success rate in operations without police casualties for nearly five years. SP Neelotpal highlighted that the security forces have aggressively moved to close the “security vacuum,” which was once an estimated 3,000 square kilometres of unpoliced territory used by Maoists for training and transit. The establishment of eight new police camps/Forward Operating Bases (FoBs) since January 2023, including in the remote Abujhmad foothills, has been crucial in securing these areas permanently. Winning Hearts, Minds The Civic Action Programme has been deemed a “game changer” by the SP. Through schemes like ‘Police Dadalora Khidaki’ and ‘Project Udaan’, the police have transformed remote outposts into service delivery centres, providing essential government services and employment opportunities. This sustained outreach has successfully countered Maoist propaganda and, most critically, resulted in zero Maoist recruitment from Gadchiroli for the last few years. Surrender Wave The state’s progressive rehabilitation policy has seen a massive influx of surrenders. “One sentiment is common among all the surrendered cadres: that the movement has ended, it has lost public support, and without public support, no movement can sustain,” the SP noted. The surrender of key figures, notably that of Mallojula Venugopal Rao alias ‘Bhupathi,’ a CPI (Maoist) Politburo member, and his wife Sangeeta, was a “landmark development” that triggered a surrender wave. Since June 2024, over 126 Maoists have surrendered. The rehabilitation program offers land, housing under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, and employment. Surrendered cadres are receiving skill training and are successfully transitioning into normal life, with around 70 already employed in the local Lloyds plant. A District Reborn The transformation of Gadchiroli is now moving beyond security concerns. With the decline of extremism, the district is rapidly moving towards development and normalcy. The implementation of development schemes, round-the-clock electricity, water supply, mobile towers, and new infrastructure like roads and bridges is being given top priority. He concludes that the police’s focus is now shifting from an anti-Maoist offensive to routine law-and-order policing, addressing new challenges like industrialisation, theft, and traffic management. With the Maoist movement in “complete disarray” and major strongholds like the Maharashtra-Madhya Pradesh-Chhattisgarh (MMC) Special Zone collapsing, the SP is highly optimistic. Gadchiroli is not just getting rid of the Naxal menace; it is embracing its future as a developing, peaceful district, well on track to meet the central government’s goal of eradicating Naxalism by March 31, 2026.

Konkan’s Conundrums


Konkan’s Conundrums

As the countdown to November 20 grows louder, all eyes are on Raigad district in the Konkan, which has become a classic microcosm of Maharashtra’s shifting political alignments in wake of the splits within the Shiv Sena in 2022 and the NCP in July 2023.


In the Assembly segments of Shrivardhan and Mahad, the prestige of tall regional leaders is on the line. At the heart of the Shrivardhan contest is Aditi Tatkare, the incumbent MLA from the ruling Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and daughter of Raigad MP Sunil Tatkare.


The Minister for Women and Child Development in the ruling Mahayuti, she successfully held the constituency – a Tatkare family borough – in the 2019 Assembly polls, overcoming fierce competition and the historical dominance of the then undivided Shiv Sena in the area.


The darkest cloud on Aditi’s horizon has been Bharat Gogawale, the vocal whip of CM Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena who, hitherto, had been the fiercest opponent of taking the Ajit Pawar-led NCP into the Mahayuti’s bandwagon. Gogawale had vociferously opposed Aditi’s appointment as Raigad’s Guardian Minister last year. The edge to Gogawale’s anger was made keener when he did not get a ministerial berth in the Mahayuti cabinet expansion – all the more reason for him to channelize his spleen on Aditi Tatkare.


Yet, after more than a year, tempers appear to have cooled for the sake of strategic objectives. Aditi has said that Gogawale and the Shinde Sena did aid in her father’s victory in the Lok Sabha election.


Gogawale, himself no mean satrap, is seeking re-election for the fourth consecutive time from the neighbouring Assembly segment of Mahad. ‘Bharat sheth’ – as he is popularly known – claims that the Mahayuti will claim all Assembly seats in Raigad, implying that the schism between himself and the Tatkares are bygone.


CM Shinde’s pacification of his party colleague came in form of Gogawale’s appointment as Chairman of the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC), with a bid to kill two birds with one stone: give his Shiv Sena greater leverage in local constituencies, especially in the coastal Konkan region and make sure allies within the Mahayuti, that is his party and the NCP work as smoothly as possible.


All that said, the key question remains whether the Tatkare family’s political legacy can endure the test of factionalism and changing alliances and whether the Sena and the NCP have campaigned as wholeheartedly for each other as they claim.


Meanwhile, Guhagar Assembly segment in Konkan’s Ratnagiri is shaping up to be a humdinger: Uddhav Thackeray’s point man, the mercurial Bhaskar Jadhav, who is seeking a fourth term as the MVA’s (SS-UBT) candidate, is up against a determined coalition of ruling BJP-Shiv Sena forces who have propped Rajesh Bendal, a former municipal council president of Guhagar.


Shinde’s Shiv Sena, which zeroed on Bendal, himself from the Ajit Pawar-led NCP, has solicited the aid of former BJP MLA Vinay Natu who was an eager aspirant for the Mahayuti ticket for the Guhagar seat. However, the nomination ultimately went to Bendal, with the approval of Natu, though. The Mahayuti this time is hell-bent on supplanting Jadhav. November 23 will tell whether their efforts succeed.

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