HYDERABAD: History will be created on Monday as Chief Minister Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy arrives at Manala, a remote village on the Nizamabad-Karimnagar district border, in Armoor Assembly constituency to participate in the Praja Patham mass contact programme.

The 12,000-odd residents of Manala, which is in the midst of a thick forest, 100-km north of Nizamabad, and 14 other hamlets have never seen a Chief Minister coming there. Dr. Reddy will participate in a public meeting and join community lunch and spend over two hours from 12.15 p.m.

The very mention of Manala used to send shivers down the spines of the police and the people till two years ago, for it was the bastion of the erstwhile People's War Group.

Glory past

For over two decades, naxalites of the banned outfit had a virtual sway over the tribal village as elected representatives or the police never dared to visit the place. The village hit the headlines on June 17, 2001, after 10 naxalites, including six members of newly formed People's Guerrilla Army (PGA), were killed by the PWG members on suspicion that they had indulged in covert operation to eliminate top leaders of the party.

Again on March 7, 2005, the village witnessed a bloodbath when 11 naxalites were killed in an alleged encounter with the police.

Manala is also known as the only village where a 40-foot-tall martyrs' memorial for women naxalites had been constructed.

Local legislator and former Minister S. Santosh Reddy told The Hindu on Sunday that the fear of naxalites had prevented elected representatives from visiting the village. "Dr. Reddy's visit will boost the morale of tribals, who have suffered due to the presence of naxalites," he added.

"Argul Rajaram was the only Minister to have visited the village ever -- to lay the foundation stone for an electricity sub-station in 1979, much before the advent of naxalites," he said.