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Letters

Revenue Stamp
Presently revenue-stamp worth rupee one is required for receipts of amounts over a specified limit which is now rupees 5000 even though payment is made through banks. This is also a useless colonial practice which needs to be altogether abolished. Rather signed receipts become useless in case gumming of revenue-stamps is not proper, because major portion of signature vanishes in case poorly gummed revenue-stamp is somehow removed from the signed receipt with signature made on a revenue-stamp. Central government should replace revenue-stamps by specially printed Revenue-Stamp-Papers.

Revenue-Stamp-Papers printed at Government's security printing-press on lines of normal stamp-papers may be introduced at cost of say rupees one hundred for heavy transactions of say rupees 50000 and above. If needed, such Revenue-Stamp-Papers of rupees ten denomination may also be introduced for receipts of lower amounts. However such Revenue-Stamp-Papers may not be needed in case payment is received through electronic bank-transfers. Presently pre-receipts of government-payments being made through electronic bank-transfer also require revenue-stamps. However such Revenue-Stamp-Papers should be conveniently available at all post-offices and bank-branches (private and public-sector) apart from other convenient centres by providing a sale-commission.
Madhu Agrawal, Delhi

31 Maoists Killed
The Human Rights Forum (HRF) and the Ganatantrik Adhikar Suraksha Sanghatan (GASS) demand that Greyhounds police personnel responsible for the killing of 27 Maoists and at least four civilians on the early morning of October 24, 2016 in the forest abutting Ramaguda village of Andrapalli panchayat in the "cutoff" area of Malkangiri district in Odisha be booked under relevant penal sections of the law including 302 IPC (murder) and the SC, ST (Prevention of Atrocities Act) and prosecuted. The criminal investigation in the case must be handed over to either the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) or a Court monitored Special Investigation Team (SIT).This SIT must consist of officers with impeccable credentials and untainted by earlier "encounter" killings.

A four-member HRF and GASS team on November 4 visited the place of firing by Greyhounds personnel. They spoke with adivasis in the area including residents of Gusumapadar and Ramaguda, a small village which is located quite close to the place of killings. Contrary to the assertion by senior police officials in both Andhra Pradesh and Orissa that the deaths were due to cross-fire, team members believe they were the result of unilateral one-sided firing by the Greyhounds. That the Maoists opened fire first and the Greyhounds were forced to retaliate resulting in the deaths is pure fiction. The Maoists were taken totally by surprise and the fatalities, 31 in all at present count, were the result of a murderous attack by the Greyhounds.

The Maoists had set up a camp a day before in a fairly dense forest area at the southern tip of the Jantri reserve forest. At about half a km from Ramaguda, the camp was located next to a stream and the hillock raises to the east and north. To the west is open ground and next to it are the placid waters of the Balimelu reservoir. At the break of dawn on October 24, the Greyhounds, who were positioned at a height to the east and north in a semi-circle, opened fire killing 24 at the camp site itself. The others camp inmates ran in the opposite direction crossing the stream and going towards Ramaguda and beyond where the thick growth stretches into the Kondakamberu reserve forest.

What is pertinent is that the Greyhounds who were well-armed could have arrested the Maoists but they did no do such thing. They not only outnumbered the latter, but were clearly in an advantageous position on higher ground. What is more, they had the element of surprise. But as has been their practice all these many decades, the Greyhounds began firing with the express intention to liquidate those present in the camp.

The day after, the police announced that four more Maoists were killed in yet another encounter in the area. What likely happened is that they found the bodies of four persons who were injured in the firing of the previous day. The police once again proclaimed that two more Maoists had died in another encounter on October 27. This is yet another falsehood. Local residents told the fact-finding mission that after the Greyhounds left the area on October 9, the Maoists came a few days later and discovered yet another body near a rivulet. He was of a young man, a civilian who was resident of Bachili-padar, also in Andrapalli panchayat. Word was sent to his village and after his parents arrived, Ramaguda villagers helped them cremate the body near the reservoir. The toll at the moment is a total of 31 persons killed.

Government must stop its ongoing policy to try to decimate the Maoists militarily. Serious efforts must be made by both the Government and the Maoists to initiate steps that would lead up to an unconditional dialogue.
S Jeevan Kumar
(HRF President, AP&TS)
V S Krishna
(HRF General Secretary, AP&TS)

Following his Guru
Modi while talking to Reuters as Chief Minister (CM) of Gujarat in 1913 told them that he was a 'Hindu nationalist' and groomed for politics by Guru Golwalkar who is often described as Guru of Hate. This Guru while delivering a speech before the 1350 top level cadres of the RSS in 1940 declared :
"RSS inspired by one flag, one leader and one ideology is lighting the flame of Hindutva in each and every corner of this great land". If this is what Modi has learnt, as Prime Minister (PM) he has to follow his Guru.
Shamsul Islam, Delhi

Frontier
Vol. 49, No.20, Nov 20 - 26, 2016