State boosts rebel rehab package

Patna: Central committee and politburo members of Maoist organisations will be given Rs 5 lakh on surrender, instead of Rs 2.5 lakh that was being given earlier. Similarly, other Maoists will get Rs 2.5 lakh on surrender instead of Rs 1.5 lakh given to them earlier.

Apart from the one-time amount, Maoists who lay down arms will be given a monthly stipend of Rs 6,000 for 36 months, instead of Rs 4,000 given to them earlier.

They will also be given job-oriented skill training.

The major decision to revise the state government’s policy for surrender-cum-rehabilitation of Maoists and providing enhanced financial assistance to those who undertake to return to the mainstream was taken at a cabinet meeting chaired by chief minister Nitish Kumar on Wednesday evening.

Cabinet secretariat department special secretary Upendra Nath Pandey said that with this the “state government has adopted the central government’s policy on surrender -cum-rehabilitation of Left-wing extremists.

In another major decision, the cabinet approved Rs 1,229 crore for acquisition of land, utility shifting, environmental clearance and other work related to construction of 865km of roads, including small bridges in five Maoist hit districts of Aurangabad, Gaya, Jamui, Banka and Muzaffarpur.

“The cabinet decision on construction of roads in Maoist affected areas has been taken under the ‘road connectivity project for the left wing extremism affected areas’ as a vertical under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana,” Pandey said.

The cabinet also approved the home department’s proposal to provide 29 acres of land at Rajapakar in Vaishali district on lease for 99 years to the CRPF for a token fee of Re 1 for Rapid Action Force (RAF) to establish a battalion centre.

Considering that 28 of the state’s 38 districts are flood-prone and 30 districts fall under earthquake-sensitive zones III, IV, and V, the cabinet approved a proposal by the disaster management department (DMD) to increase the number of existing State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) teams from 18 to 50.

For this purpose, an additional 571 posts will be created in SDRF apart from the previously created 1,157 posts.

“Bihar is a multi-disaster prone state,” DMD additional secretary M Ramchandrudu said. “SDRF teams are permanently positioned in just seven districts and take some time to move to other districts in case of disasters.

“We have decided to have one team in each of the 38 districts to cut down the response time, while the remaining 12 teams will be positioned as reserve at SDRF headquarters at Bihta.”

The cabinet also approved a proposal of the home department to upgrade the railway outpost at Dehri-on-Sone to a full-fledged rail police station and gave its nod to create 52 posts for it.

Courtesy: The Telegraph