M A I N   N E W S

Naxals go the Taliban way to raise funds
Get protection money from poppy growers
Ajay Banerjee/TNS

fund flow for rebels n Collections from poppy, marijuana growers n Extortions from contractors, businessmen, government servants n Robbing banks and public, private property n May also be getting foreign funds

New Delhi, May 15
Copying the pattern adopted by the Taliban to generate funds for terror activities, the Naxals in central India have been tacitly allowing cultivation of poppy and ganja (marijuana). Heroin and opium are the derivatives of poppy. All these intoxicants command a huge price in the international market.

Minister of State for Home Affairs Jitendra Singh said in a written reply in Parliament today that drugs were being cultivated in Odisha, Jharkhand and Bihar.

When Taliban controlled Afghanistan, drugs were the source of revenue to fund their global terror factory. A UN report in 2008 said: “In 2002, the revenue generated by the sale of opium from Afghanistan on the world market exceeded $1 billion at the farm level. It was almost 5 per cent of Afghanistan’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). In the 1990s, Afghanistan-grown poppy supplied approximately 70 per cent of the world’s opium, UN had estimated. Slowly, the NATO forces, stationed there since late 2001, started cracking down on poppy growers.

“It is a fact that CPI (Maoist) tacitly allows poppy/ganja cultivation in order to collect money from such illegal cultivation. The outfit is collecting money from those cultivating ganja and opium in some areas,” Jitendra Singh said.

No information was available to indicate that the Naxalites had directly entered into farming of poppy in an organised manner to fund their activities, he clarified.

He said the main sources of funds for the Maoists included extortions from contractors engaged in carrying out infrastructure/development works, businessmen, industries, Tendu patta contractors, government servants etc. They also robbed banks and public/private property to augment their finances, he added.

“Government has not ruled out the possibility of some front organisations of the CPI (Maoist) clandestinely getting foreign funds. The Government of India is closely monitoring the situation,” he said.

Naxals have been in the news in the past month due to kidnapping of Deputy Collector of Sukma Alex Paul Menon. Two months ago, they had kidnapped a foreigner and got several of their jailed comrades released in lieu of his freedom. Last year, they kidnapped Vineel Krishna, DC of a district in Odisha. In 2010, 76 CRPF jawans were killed by suspected Maoists. This year, 101 persons have been abducted by the Maoists and 14 of them killed. Last year, 329 persons were abducted and 64 of them were killed.