Jagori’s brother applies for cop job

 biswabrata goswami

18 November 2011

MIDNAPORE, 18 NOV: A day after Maoist activist Jagori Baske, along with her husband, Rajaram Soren, surrendered before chief minister Miss Mamata Banerjee, her brother, Sovaram Baske, today applied for a job in the police forces under the special recruitment drive of tribal youths launched by the state government in Junglemahal.
He is probably the first family member of any prominent Maoist in Junglemahal who stepped forward to apply for the special police constable force. “I am eager to get benefit of the special project launched by the chief minister. I agreed to work for the sake of the people and the nation,” he said after filling up the form at Belpahari police station today. As today was the last date for filing application to the posts of various police jobs, hundreds of tribal youths thronged the various police stations in Junglemahal.
Defying the Maoist diktat against accepting government jobs, thousands of tribal youths had cycled to police stations from distant areas to collect application forms for jobs in the posts of junior constables, homeguards and the National Volunteer Force in the last two months.
Former Peoples’ Committee against Police Atrocities (PCPA) convenor Chhatradhar Mahato’s son had also applied for a police job a few days ago.
On her first visit to the Junglemahal tribal belt after taking over as the chief minister, Miss Banerjee had addressed two public meetings at Nayagram and Jhargram on 13 July. At the events, she also distributed scholarships and bicycles to the meritorious adivasi students and promised 10,000 jobs to the youth in the state police and home guards.
She made a clarion call to the Maoists for joining the mainstream by laying down arms and promised that her government would provide them adequate financial compensation, besides taking care of their family members. “Surrender your guns and stop individual killings,” the CM had said, adding, “If you take up arms, do it for the country.”
Following her call, five Maoists have surrendered themselves before the state government so far and “more than 10,000 tribal youths have applied for police jobs so far,” said Mr Alok Rajoria, additional superintendent of police, Jhargram. sns