Odishatv Bureau
Rayagada: After targeting police personnel, mobile towers, rail tracks and schools, it seems that the Maoists have now included rice meant for BPL families and mid-day programme in their list of attack.

After the recent encounter between police forces and the ultras at Kashipur here, rice which are distributed to people below poverty line at Rs 2 per kg and rice meant for the mid-day meal in schools were recovered from Maoist camps.

With seizure of huge quantity of rice, police suspect that the ultras might have looted it for their survival in jungles. Even there is an informal agreement between the local residents and Maoists that each BPL family would part with two kg rice to the ultras.

“The school committee has informed that the ultras forcefully take away the rice meant for mid-day meal programme. And according to an informal agreement each family in the village donate two kg of rice for the Maoists on the day they receive it”, said Superintendent of Police Anup Krishna.

Admitting that it too had intelligence reports of the mid-day meal loot by Maoists the police said that they were looting mainly from Gudari, Chandrapur and Kesingpur area.

Following the recovery of rice from the Red camp, it has raised concerns of the district administration and the police as the beneficiaries of the social welfare programmes are directly affected with the shift in Maoist strategy.

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