Tough road ahead to secure Collector’s release

Agencies

Malkangiri, 20 February 2011: The schoolchildren of Malkangiri are holding rallies to seek his release, but the fate of District Collector R.V. Krishna, who was abducted by cadres of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist) on January 16, is likely to rest on the Orissa government’s response to the set of demands put forward by his abductors.

 

On February 10 this year, the Maoists released five policemen captured in Chhattisgarh’s Narayanpur district even as the State government refused to respond to eleven demands circulated in the local and national media. At the time, senior Maoist leader Prabhat told The Hindu that the men had been released as the policemen came from poor families. "It would have been very different if we had captured an IPS officer," he had said.

 

In this case of Mr. Krishna, a pamphlet released by Andhra-Orissa Special Zonal Committee spokesman, Prasad, listed five demands: the withdrawal of central paramilitary forces from Orissa and an end to Operation Green Hunt, the release of all political prisoners in Orissa, an end to police atrocities against the State’s tribal population, a suspension of contracts signed with multinational companies – particularly in Niyamgiri – and compensation for the families of two Maoists, Taringe Ganglu and Sirka Ranola, who died in Koraput Jail (allegedly due to negligent jailors).

 

Later, sources close to the Maoists said that the guerrillas have also demanded the distribution of land-titles in three places in Orissa including Narayanpatnam where adivasis are struggling to retain ownership over about 2500 acres of land, and compensation for villages submerged in the Balimela reservoir. Newspaper reports State that the Maoists also want the Polavaram Dam project to be stopped.

 

It is believed that the first step shall involve a negotiation over the release of three individuals – Sriramalu Srinavasalu, of the Andhra – Orissa Special Zonal Committee of the Maoists, Ganti Prasadam, convener of the Martyrs Friends and Relatives Committee and K. Padma, wife of Maoist leader Ramakrishna.

 

There are currently 7 battalions of the CRPF and 5 BSF battalions deployed across Orissa, accounting for about 12,000 paramilitary troopers. There are also about 700 prisoners currently facing trial in Maoist related cases, indicating that the state government faces some tough decisions in the coming days.

 

“This is very different from Chhattisgarh where the Maoists decided to release the policemen and we acted as facilitators,” said activist Swami Agnivesh who participated in the February 10 hostage release in Narayanpur, “This time the Maoists will not let him go just like that.”

 

Stating that “it was a fact” that Mr. Krishna had reached to the District’s poorest and most vulnerable inhabitants in his capacity as Collector, National Secretary of the People’s Union for Civil Liberties, V. Suresh noted that the pleas of the family members of the five lower-ranking policemen kidnapped in January had gone largely unheard for eighteen days. “In Chhattisgarh, the Maoists kidnapped three dalits and two tribals and the government did not help at all,” said Mr. Suresh, “Here the government has responded on the very next day… bureaucrats only respond when their own officials are involved.”

 

Mr. Suresh also drew attention to the government’s troubled relationship with the activist community. “It is a paradoxical situation where the state attacks human rights groups as supporters of the Maoists and terrorists but when the chips are down, they fall back on the same groups,” he said.