Jalpaiguri, Jan. 27: Surrendered KLO militants will be absorbed in the district home guards department as part of the latest rehabilitation policy that was reportedly approved by chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, during his last north Bengal trip, after earlier self-employment schemes came a cropper.

The recruitment is expected to finish by next month, said sources.

Jalpaiguri superintendent of police Siddh Nath Gupta said: “Out of nearly 80 KLO militants who surrendered before us or the Royal Bhutan Army during the Bhutan operation last year, around 50 will be offered jobs as home guards. For those who are not interested in joining this department or are not fit enough, there will be other self-employment schemes.”

Several militants have surrendered since September 2001, disillusioned by the militancy movement and lured by promises of the government to rehabilitate them in the mainstream.

Rehabilitation, however, turned out to be more difficult than it had appeared to be.

Those like Tarzan who were absorbed in the first self-help group ended up with frustration since there was hardly any job to be done.

According to the surrendered rebels, the self-help groups had remained ineffective since the government had expected the members to put together the initial finance. The members of these groups, however, were in no position to cough up that kind of money.

Another defect of the self-help schemes was lack of individual focus, something that the latest policy tries to remove.

“The government till now was not bothered about any of us. Several times in the past, we have asked for loans to start individual businesses but were rejected. We ended up having a job but not doing any work,” said Tarzan.

Asked about the latest development, he said it was like a dream come true. “I have always wanted to do become a policeman. Now that I have decided to return to mainstream life, I am delighted by the government’s proposition.”

The placement of the surrendered rebels in the district home guards department is also good news for the short-staffed department that has only 1,100 cadets, the sources added.

“Of them, nearly 750 work in the police department and the remaining have been deputed at other government departments like the West Bengal State Electricity Board and public works department and elsewhere. We need as many as 900 more cadets. We are, however, not aware of such any such decision,” an official of the district home guards department of Jalpaiguri said.