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Raipur: Thousands of people in Chhattisgarh’s Bastar area have decided to hunt down Naxalites and bring an end to the menace.

Buoyed by this unprecedented situation, the Chhattisgarh police have decided to offer weapons to anti-Naxal groups and appoint people involved in the action as special police officers.

The Naxal ‘farmaan’ banning tendu leaf collection and weekly markets, has proven suicidal. Tendu leaves are used as a wrappers in ‘beedi’. Tendu leaf collection is the only economic activity the tribals are involved in.

With the Naxal ‘order’ in place, the tribals started finding it difficult to make both ends meet. This led to a villagers’ revolt. This year the state government has decided against granting collection contracts to private parties. Government agencies would be engaged for the job.

Police sources say that Naxalites can extort money from private contractors but not from the government agencies.

The Naxalites hoped that the people would come out against the government and compel it to hand over the collection to private parties, but their plans backfired and now the Naxalites are in trouble with people hunting them down. Villages under Madded, Geedam, Bhairamgarh, Kutru and Kotrapal areas of Dantewada district are in the thick of action.

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