Chhattisgarh: Scribes protest,seek Rs 10 lakh compensation

A week after Maoists killed a senior journalist Sain Reddy in Basaguda village of Bijapur district,nearly 200 journalists of Chhattisgarh and neighbouring Orissa,Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra held a protest dharna at the spot on Saturday.

Strongly condemning Maoists,they decided to boycott all news related to the rebels and asked the government to provide Rs 10 lakh compensation for Reddy’s family and a job for one of his relative. They asked the Maoists to release a statement explaining why Reddy was killed. “Journalists of South Bastar risk their lives to report from here. Still,they are killed. We strongly condemn this incident,” said S Karimuddin,president of Bastar Journalist Association.

They compared Maoists with the Taliban and said that “Maoists have no control on their lower cadres”. “Ten years ago,people supported Maoists for their revolutionary stand but today intellectuals have lost faith in them,” they added.

Sain Reddy,in his early 50s,was working with Deshbandhu,one of the oldest newspapers of Chhattisgarh. Journalists believe Reddy was caught in police-Maoist conflict.