A villager being beaten up by a Naxalite at a kangaroo court of the Maoists in Gaya. Picture by Suman

Gaya, July 15: Maoists in Bihar, it seems, are taking a lesson or two in good governance from chief minister Nitish Kumar. The growing popularity of Nitish’s janata darbar, held every first three Mondays of the month, has prompted the rebels to make jan adalat (kangaroo court) a regular activity.

According to a source, the regional committee of Communist Party of India (Maoist) has decided to organise at least 50 jan adalats in Magadh and the Shahabad divisions of the state by the end of this year. The Magadh division comprises five districts — Gaya, Jehanabad, Aurangabad, Arwal and Nawada — while Shahabad division has four districts — Rohtas, Kaimur, Bhojpur, Buxar. The regional committee of the CPI (Maoist) has now decided to summon “corrupt” government employees, contractors and middlemen besides people having “criminal” antecedents to be present at the jan adalat. The adalat will address complaints brought to the notice of the outfit by villagers.

On Thursday night, rebels owing allegiance to CPI (Maoists) organised a jan adalat at two places — Pahra panchayat under Guraru block and at a secret place in Amas block — in Gaya district. At Pahra, the Maoists punished a block teacher for his alleged attempt to outrage the modesty of a student at the government middle school where he is posted. The girl and her family members had approached the Maoists for action against the teacher. The family members of the girl claimed no departmental action was taken against the teacher even though he remained absent from the school from June 15 onwards.

In the other jan adalat held under Amas block, Maoist leaders listened to around 100 complaints lodged by the villagers.

The CPI (Maoist) has received several complaints and there is a target to clear all of them by the end of December. For this, jan adalat will be organised on a regular basis and the accused will be summoned to be present there. The jan adalat of one zone and sub-zone would be held in another zone and sub-zone and vice versa. Focus will be on addressing complaints against “corrupt” government employees, contractors of development schemes and the middlemen. If found guilty, they will be punished at the jan adalat itself, said the source.

The regional committee of CPI (Maoist) has also decided to fix separate “levy” (a certain per cent of the total project cost) on construction of roads and the bridges. Earlier, the percentage of “levy” was same for road and bridge projects.

Irrigation projects, construction of school buildings and gram panchayat schemes have been exempted from the “levy” provided there is transparency in the work. If any complaint of misappropriation of fund comes to the notice of the rebels, not only will the “levy” be charged but those found involved in “corruption” will be taken to task.

The school buildings and other premises where police force the paramilitary force stay will be destroyed. “Levy” will be charged on repair work of such buildings. “Levy” will also be charged on mobile towers being set up in rural areas and when the money is not paid the towers would be attacked and damaged, the source informed.