Bhubaneswar, April 10: Around 200 Chasi Muliya Adivasi Sangh (CMAS) activists have surrendered before the police in Koraput district during the last three months, showing their willingness to part ways with the Maoists and return to the mainstream.

Most of the activists, who had been carrying a violent land movement at Narayanpatna and Bandhugaon blocks with the support of Maoists, confessed that they were tired of being on the run and wanted to lead a normal life.

The trend began in January, when around 80 members of the organisation laid down their arms. Some of them also criticised their leader Nachika Linga, who has been evading arrest. More activists surrendered in the subsequent months.

A lot of credit for the surrenders goes to the police and Koraput district administration officials who managed to convince the sangh members that benefits of government’s welfare schemes would not reach them unless they gave up violence. The older generation of CMAS leaders then convinced the younger ones.

The surrenders are a far cry from the days when the CMAS writ used to run in Narayanpatna and Bandhugaon where non-tribal landlords were forced out of their land. The armed activists would descend on the fields of these landlords right under the nose of the police and begin capture.

In several areas of these blocks, non-tribal owners of land were forced out of their villages. Some landed up in Bhubaneswar and staged protests to highlight their plight. But they had little help from the government.

The CMAS received a major boost when the Maoists last year kidnapped Biju Janata Dal legislator from Laxmipur, Jhina Hikaka. He was kept captive in the strongholds of the organisation in Narayanpatna and Bandhugaon and tried in the “people’s court” consisting mainly of the sangh activists.

Once the MLA was released, the police decided to go after the Maoists and CMAS with all their might.

However, while their prime target Nachila Linga, remained elusive teasing them with occasional appearances at public meetings, they arrested a number of sangh activists. The surrenders began soon after as the activists realised that they were unlikely to get much support either from Linga or the Maoists.

Top Maoist leaders operating in the area, in fact, had crossed over to Andhra Pradesh fearing arrest. As for Linga, he has been in hiding for over a year now. Under tremendous pressure, he had neither the time nor the opportunity to reorganise his men and dissidence within CMAS started growing.