People in Bihar urge Maoists to come back to mainstream

People of Bihar blamed lack of development as the prime reason behind the problem of Maoism, and urged the rebels to come back to mainstream.

A member of youth wing of Janata Dal - United (JD-U) party in Gaya district in Bihar said that although Maoist rebels are working for development, their methods are wrong.

"Our brothers who have gone out of mainstream, I request them to take part in this new wave of development. Their objective is also development, but their methods are wrong. They are not able to understand this", said President of the youth wing of JD-U, Chandan Kumar Yadav.

Other people in Gaya district are of the view that the state government needs to formulate policies to flush out rebels and develop the state.

Prominent journalist Shyam Bhandari believes that lack of provision of basic facilities is also a major reason behind the problem.

"There were places where development was not able to reach and basic facilities were not provided. Such people who faced injustice then turned to Naxalism," he said.

Meanwhile, a retired IPS (Indian Police Service) officer, Masoom Kazmi said the roots of the rebellion were sown at the time of India's independence.

"When India attained its independence, everybody had a lot of expectations that the change will come. However, that change never came. People who had long been the caretakers for social development, they remained the same even after independence. Finally, people started to vent out their anger but the solution has still not been found", said Kazmi, who has worked in Maoist-affected areas for a long time.

India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh calls Maoists as country's main internal security threat and an obstacle to higher growth and more jobs in Asia's third-largest economy.

Hundreds of people are killed every year in the conflict, although levels of violence have fallen in the recent years.