Surrendered militants indulging in unlawful acts will be deprived of rehabilitation policy

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: Surrendered militants indulging in any unlawful and anti-social activity will be excluded from the Assam Government’s proposed comprehensive relief and rehabilitation policy.

The State Government had recently announced that it would frame a comprehensive relief and rehabilitation policy for more than 1,600 surrendered cadres of all four factions of the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) to prevent them from being misguided in the future. The scheme will be chalked out by the State Home department in consultation with the Assam Police, the leaders of four factions of NDFB and other stakeholders.

“But the surrendered militants would be considered ineligible for inclusion under the proposed policy in case they are found indulging in any unlawful and anti-social activity. The government will seek information about the surrendered militants from the Assam Police before including them under the rehabilitation policy,” a source said.

It has been learnt that though a huge number of weapons were surrendered recently by more than 1,600 cadres of the four factions of NDFB, there are uncertainty and fear as to whether all the weapons were handed over. So, the police and security forces will have to keep a close watch on the surrendered militants to ensure that they do not indulge in any crime and unlawful act with the help of arms not deposited to the government. There were instances in the past where some surrendered militants used sophisticated weapons to indulge in acts of violence.

On other hand, as per a new rehabilitation scheme of the Centre, the militants who come over ground for talks with the government would get Rs 6,000 each as monthly stipend and an additional incentive if they deposit arms and ammunition depending on the weapon that they deposit. Moreover, an amount of Rs 4 lakh would be kept in fixed deposit against each militant. However, if any surrendered militant is found to be involved in any criminal activity during the ceasefire agreement tenure, he or she would not get the money.

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