The State Government on Friday removed five more erstwhile Maoist-hit districts from the Centre’s Security Related Expenditure (SRE) scheme.
The districts are Angul, Boudh, Sambalpur, Deogarh and Nayagarh.
With this, total 11 districts have been assessed to be free from Maoist activities in a span of two years largely due to the impact of security responses and good governance by the State Government.
The progressive fizzling out of the Maoist influence is indicative of the growing acceptance by the people to the developmental agenda of the State Government and their disillusionment with the obsolete Maoist ideology, said an Odisha police release.
In April 2018, the Leftwing SRE district tag had been removed from Jajpur, Dhenkanal, Keonjhar, Mayurbhanj, Gajapati and Ganjam after being declared as free from Maoist activities.
Now, Koraput, Malkangiri, Nabarangpur, Rayagada, Sundargarh, Kandhamal, Kalahandi, Nuapada, Bargarh and Balangir are the 10 districts still under the influence of Leftwing extremism.
Later in the day, DGP Abhay addressed a Press meet about the development and appealed to the Maoists to shun violence and join the mainstream of society. He said that due to the Government’s good rehabilitation policy, 13 and 17 ultras have surrendered before police in 2019 and 2020 (so far), respectively.
