Imphal, February 19, 2010: Altogether 40 surrendered UG cadres who were housed in the Government-run rehabilitation centre at Lamphelpat have fled so far.

The rehabilitation centre was opened in September, 2005 under the Central sponsored Scheme for Surrender and Rehabilitation for Militant in North East.

Notwithstanding the vocational training such as tailoring, carpentry and computer operation being imparted to surrendered UG cadres at the centre, 40 ex-UG cadres have fled away from the centre for different reasons.

Of the 79 ex-UG cadres housed at the centre, 14 were fully rehabilitated and they have returned to their homes.

At present, 25 ex-UG cadres are staying at the centre.

Under the initiative of the Ministry of Home Affairs, Media Wing, a team of reporters including both local and visiting reporters based outside the State visited the rehabilitation centre on February 17. Talking to the media persons, one Zamir Khan, a former cadre of PULF (Azad) said that he joined the armed outfit by mistake.

Saying he would not join PULF ever again, Zamir Khan evinced desire to join armed forces and fight against his former colleagues in arms.

To a query, Zamir said that some of his friends who stayed at the centre have left Manipur and some of them have received appointments in private companies at Mumbai.

Monthly emolument given to him when he was a cadre of PULF was Rs 5000 as against Rs 2000 given to him by the Government at the rehabilitation centre.

"Even as most of us staying at the centre have received vocational training, we don't have any work to do all day long.

Moreover, there is no provision for counselling", Zamir added.

On the other hand, it is reported that bullying and extortion by UG cadres have been stopped following establishment of SPOs (now VDF).

Interacting with the media team yesterday, Heirok villagers said that peace reigns in their village now without any disturbance from UG cadres as the VDFs are guarding the village.

Deputy Pradhan of Heirok Kh Manihar said that the villagers had been enduring all kinds of harassments including monetary demands.

But with the establishment of VDF, the villagers are now able to live their peacefully, he said.

Romen, a VDF personnel who received arms training at Manipur Police Training School, Pangei and now posted at Heirok said that there were many instances of attacks by UG cadres in their attempt to intrude into the village.

But the UG cadres' attempts were thwarted by the prompt action of VDF, police and the villagers, Romen said.

One police officer said that the VDFs of Heirok have been staying in five barracks together with IRB personnel.

As of now, VDFs of Heirok have not been issued any arms even as they have given training on handling different types of weapons.

Notably, the State Govt came up with the idea of establishing SPOs when the people of Heirok demanded arms for self-protection in the aftermath of the killing of three people and blinding a girl due to indiscriminate firing by some UG activists at a Thabal Chongba venue at Heirok on March 24, 2008.

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