Odisha Govt To Give Skill Training To Surrendered Maoists

Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government has decided to give all the educational requirements to surrendered Maoists. It will facilitate skill development training at Skill Development Centres (SDCs) and Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) to the Red rebels who have surrendered to the state police.

Young Maoists who have returned to the mainstream should be properly rehabilitated so that they can take up jobs, said Sanjay Singh, Secretary of Skill Development and Technical Education to PTI.

The state government has asked the Director Technical Education and Training (DTET), Cuttack, to relax the requisite educational qualification to facilitate the training of former Maoists in SDCs and ITIs, he said.

“Instead of the mandatory 10th standard academic qualification for entry to SDCs and ITIs, we have proposed to ease it to eighth standard for the Maoists who have abandoned insurgency and joined the mainstream. The same academic eligibility will also be valid for youth of the tribal infested regions. We have submitted our proposal to the Centre and once the approval comes through, the proposal will be implemented,” said an official.

The state government has also been setting up SDCs in remote districts affected by Left Wing Extremists (LWE).

The state government has already set up five ITIs and 10 SDCs in Maoist-affected districts.

A couple of days back, a wanted Maoist, identified as Durbadal Bariha, surrendered before the Nuapada police in the presence of Nuapada SP, Smith Parmar at the district headquarters office.

According to sources, Bariha had been working as a member in the Bargarh-Balangir Mahasamund Division of the outlawed CPI (Maoist) since 2009.

He was involved in the torching of a camp of a road construction company and its machinery at Palsada in Bargarh district in 2009, setting fire to some trucks at Jharmunda in 2011 and murder of a man at Baratunda village in 2012. He was carrying a cash reward of Rs 1 lakh on his head.

A week before that, a Maoist couple had surrendered before Malkangiri police.

The surrendered Maoists were identified as Mukesh and Ratna. The duo was working in Naxal Military Platoon and carrying a cash reward of Rs 4 lakh and Rs 1 lakh respectively.

They were involved in nearly 40 cases of Maoist violence, police sources said.

The Maoists will be rehabilitated under the prevailing surrender policy of the state government to bring them into the social mainstream.

This step of state government would encourage other Maoists to shun violence and give up arms, hoped a police officer.