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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.

The Saffron Warriors

Updated: Oct 22, 2024

Saffron Warriors

When Uddhav Thackeray took oath as the 18th chief minister of Maharashtra on November 28, 2019, he proclaimed that he had fulfilled his late father’s wish to have a ‘Shiv Sainik’ seated in the highest executive office in the Government of Maharashtra. It surprised many to see members of the Thackeray family taking up a constitutional post as Uddhav’s son, Aditya, followed him into the council of ministers. For over four decades since he founded the Shiv Sena as a political party, Bal Thackeray never aimed to hold any office. He had proudly claimed he that was the “remote control” that controlled the actions of the chief minister when the Shiv Sena and BJP had formed the government between 1995 and 1999. The Thackeray dynasty, until 2019, was seen as the force behind the scenes, one that had full authority but no answerability.


Bal Thackeray, one among the eight children of writer and social reformer Prabhodhankar or Keshav Thackeray, founded the Shiv Sena on June 19, 1966. He had started his career as a cartoonist in the Free Press Journal and later went on to publish Marmik, a weekly in Marathi. A cartoonist par excellence and journalist, Thackeray used his weekly to comment on social and political issues and started his career in public life by leading a movement against migrants and fighting for the rights of the sons-of-the-soil. Therein lay the birth of the Shiv Sena, a party that later went on to scale great heights and reach the chambers of power in the Centre and in the state.


Thackeray anointed Uddhav as his heir in January 2003 at the party’s conclave. He took over as the ‘pakshapramukh’ and after Raj’s departure from the party, Sena workers rallied around Uddhav. In 2010, Thackeray launched his grandson Aaditya at a grand party event and handed over the reins of the Yuva Sena or the youth wing of the party to him.


 The father-son duo kept their flock together in elections even after the death of the senior Thackeray in 2012, winning the cash-rich Mumbai municipal corporation and state elections with the BJP. In 2019, in a surprise turn of events, Uddhav was named Chief Minister of Maharashtra as part of a post-poll alliance with the Congress and Nationalist Congress Party.


 His party split when senior leader Eknath Shinde walked away with legislators in 2022.

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