Community policing and combative efforts had appeared to be effective in checking Maoist menace in Uttar Pradesh, but a recent Ballia administration letter on apprehension of the Naxal movement taking roots in 53 villages might force the state police to redraw its plans.
The state has three Naxal-infested districts - Sonebhadra, Chandauli and parts of Mirzapur - and it had been successfully managing to check the menace but a letter by superintendent of police, Ballia in April has highlighted the threat that looms large in 53 villages of the district which share border with Bihar on three sides.
According to the letter, all the socio-economic factors said to give rise to Naxalism are present in Ballia and if remedial steps are not taken, it would take root there, posing a challenge to law and order and development.
These 53 villages include Nagwa, the native village of freedom fighter Mangal Pandey, Ojhwalia, the village of noted Hindi litterateur Hazari Prasad Dwivedi, and six villages under Dokati police station area of Jai Prakash Narain.
The letter requests the government to provide all facilities in these villages of Ballia which are being provided to the Naxal-infested areas of the state and give priority to development schemes.
It also stresses on bringing the backward and poor people in the mainstream to check the youth from being misled.
