Few members of the village volunteer force at Hussainabad in Rohtas district. Picture by Sanjay Choudhary

Patna, June 10: The backlash in Chhattisgarh notwithstanding, Bihar police are constituting village volunteer force in Maoist-hit districts.

Christened Gram Raksha Dal, the force comprising men and women would work in tandem with the security personnel against the Naxalites and criminals in remote villages. In the latest move, 50 women and 60 men, most of them in their mid-twenties, joined the Gram Raksha Dal at Maoist-affected Hussainabad village under Rajpur police station in Rohtas district on Saturday. The district police officers provided them with uniform, torches, sticks and cellphones to help the police wage a war against the Naxalites and criminals.

“The Dal members have been imparted training by female constables and male policemen posted at Rajpur police station. They would carry out patrolling in the village, considered to be the hotbed of the Maoists at night, and inform the police about the movement of armed squad members of the CPI (Maoist) as well as illegal activities going on in the area,” said Rohtas superintendent of police Manu Maharaj.

Chhattisgarh police nurtured a similar force — Salwa Judum. Some of its activists allegedly misused their power. The strength of the force gradually increased, unnerving the rebels. It led to a spurt in Naxalite attacks on civilians. Several Salwa Judum activists were killed.

The Bihar police, as of now, do not see any such threat to the Dal members. Maharaj said: “The Dal is a group of villagers comprising men and women. I have doubts if the Maoists will go against the inhabitants of the entire village. Moreover, they normally do not harm women.”

Sources said a similar initiative was taken by former Munger superintendent of police M. Sunil Naik. He had employed youths as special police officers (SPOs) in Maoist-affected villages to counter the rebels. But the formation of the SPOs came under severe criticism when the officers posted at the state police headquarters came to know about illegal arms possessed by some SPOs. The fallout of the SPOs’ formation was witnessed in Hiranmar diara when some Maoists were killed and their arms were allegedly taken away by a group of villagers.

Maharaj, who has been credited with curbing Naxalite menace in the district to a great extent, claimed that Gram Raksha Dal was different from Salwa Judum in Chhattisgarh.

“We have not armed the Dal members. They have been given sticks and we are encouraging women to join the force. The youths can deviate from the path and indulge in illegal activities like demanding extortion or issuing threats to someone but women will not,” he said.

In order to keep a watch on the activities of the Dal members, the SP has issued necessary instructions to the station house officers concerned. “Undoubtedly we will keep surveillance on their activities also so that they don’t misuse advantage of police assistance,” Maharaj said.

According to the district police chief, so far 500 men and women have joined the force in villages under Rajpur and Chutia police stations, considered to be the hotbed of the rebels.