Police informed that the banned CPI(Maoist) member Hidma, 25, a native of Koyya district surrendered before the Mulugu police and 151 CRPF battalion

Maoist Madvi Hidma on Wednesday surrendered before Mulugu police in Telangana's Siddipet. Madvi Hidma also handed over his rifle to the cops. Meanwhile, Mulugu Superintendent of Police SSG Patil has appealed to other members of the Maoist party to surrender and join the mainstream.

Police informed that the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist) member Hidma, 25, a native of Chhattisgarh's Koyya district surrendered before the Mulugu police and 151 CRPF battalion. He was working for CPI(M) since he was 16-year-old and is believed to be the mastermind of several attacks on security forces.

On Monday, President Ram Nath Koivind said that areas where Naxals operate have come down significantly over the years. He said that now 70 districts in the country are Naxal affected, from an earlier 126 districts.

"Due to concerted efforts of my government, the number of Naxal-affected districts in the country has also come down from 126 to 70 today," he said while addressing the joint sitting of Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha at the beginning of the budget session.

On September 21, last year, the then Union minister of state (MoS) for home G Kishan Reddy had informed Rajya Sabha that a total of 90 districts in the country are considered Naxal or left-wing extremism (LWE) affected, and are covered under the Security Related Expenditure (SRE) scheme of the home ministry.

Reddy had also said that LWE-related violent incidents were reported in 61 districts in 2019 and in only 46 districts in the first half of 2020.

According to home ministry data, between 2004-2020, 8,380 people were killed by the Maoists in different parts of India.