Fighting With Posters - Police Vs. Naxalites

: Police and Naxalites in Koraput district are fighting not only with bullets and bombs but have staged a virtual war against each other by pasting posters on the walls and distributing leaflets among the masses , especially in the naxal affected regions of Narayanapatna , Bandhugaon , Pottangi and Nandapur blocks in Koraput district.

While it was a practice by the naxalites to take the people on their side by staging street plays , meetings and revolutionary songs over the last many years , now the district police has also come up with similar strategies to spread the message on the welfare prgrammes of the government . District police has already organized 8 special camps in the naxal affected blocks of the district during the last month alone , Deepak Kumar , SP of Koraput said .

The camps were conducted to reach the common masses by addressing their own concerns and difficulties . Efforts were made to see that more and more people get involved in the performances and get in touch with the police through the cultural programmes , community feast and medical camps , he added.

Looking at the overwhelming response from the common people in the region , the district police has now come up with posters and leaflets written in Kuvi language , the prime medium of communication for most of the tribals from Kondh community living in the naxal affected regions of the district . While this move was thought to have emerged from the latest posters by the naxalites in Bandhugaon block which they had displayed after killing a businessman alleging him for being a police informer, the success of the move was also appreciated . The naxalites had for the first time used Kuvi language written in Oriya dialect asking people to support their mission .

While most of the posters & leaflets displayed and distributed by the naxalites had carried messages asking the traders , contractors and oppressors to stop their alleged anti tribal activities like selling liquor to the tribals , claiming their rights on the tribal lands and engaging tribal men and women to smuggle wood from the forests, few posters had also invited people to join their mission or to extend support to make the band calls given by them .

In addition , posters by naxalites were seen to have asked people to learn their rights and exercise them whenever required. But in contrary , the posters and leaflets distributed by the district police , carried the messages of the programmes and policies of the government with a mission to take the message of development and concern of the government towards the people at grassroots and the responsibility of people to approach the respective agencies to enjoy the benefits rather than taking laws into their own hands , Mr. Deepak added.

Further the police in its leaflets has asked the people to think over the actions performed by naxalites . The naxalites were using the arms and ammunition for anti national activities and were obstructing in developmental programmes in the rural areas , police alleged . While the leaflet with its 15 points were trying to invoke people to think over the intentions of the naxalites in the region , the poster was designed with multicolour pictorial presentation on the prohibition of liquor and the need to visit the police station, tahsil office and block offices in need .

Moreover contrary to the posters and leaflets of the naxalites which were handmade and handwritten , these posters were more attractive and printed with clear letters . But looking at the lower level of literacy in the tribal dominated regions while spreading messages of change through theater , culture and sports had begun to show some results , the impact of the posters and leaflets was still to be ascertained in the long run , Mr.Deepak added.
(EOM)