Monday, 12 December 2011 21:37
DEVELOPMENT DEFICIT
BY Sudarshan Chhotoray
For 40-year-old Budu Sabar of Mohana block in Gajapati district, life has been a hell. Hardly does he get a day when the armed police personnel are not marching on the road or conducting raids in nearest forest areas as a part of the combing operation against the ultras.
Budu ekes out a living by collecting forest resources but refrains from venturing into the forests fearing arrest by police and attack by Naxals. Similar is the story for Raju Jhankar of Komana block in Nuapada district. Raju sells broomsticks in nearby market areas after he purchases them from the primary collectors and broom makers. He is now under regular scrutiny of police. Not only Budu and Raju, there are hundreds of tribals who are living amidst fears of arrest and attack for no fault. Caught between the Maoists and the police, these tribals, basically the forest dwellers, for whom development is still a distant dream, exploitation and harassment have been a day-to-day affair.
In recent years, there has been a spurt in Maoist activities in the State. Thanks to maladministration, exclusion and regional imbalance, the State which had two Naxal prone districts Malkangiri and Gajapati only a few years back, now has 20 out of 30 districts reported as Maoist infested. The Union Government sponsored Integrated Action Plan (IAP) which had earlier covered six districts of the State out of the 60 selected tribal and backward districts in the country, covered 15 districts in Odisha on November 25, 2010. The Ministry of Panchayatiraj had sanctioned Rs 25 crore for each district, which was further escalated to Rs 30 crore.
However, a recent communiqué by Union Home Ministry issued on December 9 said the Union Cabinet has approved the inclusion of three more districts (Ganjam, Jajpur and Nayagarh) under IAP. It means 18 districts of Odisha are officially considered Naxal- affected. Till date, the Central Government has spent Rs 1,391 crore in the project.
The sanctioned amount was spent for raising basic infrastructure like roads, bridges, school building, electricity, water and sanitation facilities. But, the ground realities confirm much of the sum has been either diverted for other purposes or lower ranking officials in connivance with local contractors and politicians siphoned it off.
The Union Government also sanctioned Rs 133 crore to modernize and fortify 77 police stations, give insurance cover of Rs 10 lakh for police and paramilitary persons, 25 per cent special allowance for armed forces deployed in Naxal areas, etc. The State Government has also announced special packages for Naxal affected areas and police personnel. Besides the deployment of State armed police forces, the Centre has placed 14 companies of CRPF and BSF, a COBRA battalion and Pawan Hans Helicopter in Odisha to coordinate joint combing during anti-Naxal operations. A high level joint command is also working under the chairmanship of the State Chief Secretary.
Khuturam Sunani, a social activist in Nuapara, said much of the fund has been diverted for non priority areas and non targeted areas. The Government could have provided drinking water, upgraded irrigation facilities and restored basic health and education facilities by utilizing the fund. “These funds are not reaching to the affected areas for which it meant,” he added.
Whatever the reason, despite a plethora of programmes, policies and projects to wean away tribals from the Naxals, Maoists are still predominant. They have already paralyzed administration in many places of Malkangiri, Rayagada, Koraput, Gajapati, Kandhamal, Nuapara, Baragarh, Bolangir, Sundergarh and Keonjhar, to name a few. Bhagawat Rath, a leading Rayagada-based Sarvodaya leader and keen social observer, said: “Southern Odisha’s majority population is tribal. Moneylenders, Government and police officials have exploited them for years. Quite naturally, therefore, the area was ripe for the Naxalite movement.”
Theofil Gamango, another observer, remarked, “The Government infrastructure in southern Odisha is poor. Low levels of literacy and systematic exclusion of tribals from any development process has led to extreme poverty in the region.”
Some of the statistics is revealing. Over 50 per cent of Odisha’s tribal population lives in the southern and south-western districts close to Andhra Pradesh. These tribes, mainly Khonds, Bondas, Saoras and Koyas, had traditionally survived on forest wealth and community farming, but with declining forests and increasing trend of shifting cultivation, land alienation has been rampant. These tribes have been, therefore, forced to become seasonal wage labourers. In the absence of any meaningful Government intervention, it was easy for the Naxalites to gain entry into the area. Today, their presence casts a long shadow on the southern Odisha districts. The Government is on a retreat here.
But it’s not as if the Naxalites are welcomed with open arms everywhere. Take Krushna Chandra Gudika for example. He is angry with both the police and the Naxalites. Sitting in front of his kutcha house in Sandubadi under Rayagada district, Gudika laments the fact that his village is right on the border with Andhra Pradesh. “Being the last village on the border in this area, we are caught between the Naxalites and police. While the Naxalites want shelter and food, the police, especially from Andhra Pradesh, come chasing them and harass us instead. Our only source of livelihood, forests, is also destroyed in the process,” says Gudika.
His neighbour, Simadri Ganta, echoes same sentiment. “Since our area is seen as Naxalite-infested, no Govern
ment official, be it a doctor, an engineer or even teacher wants to come here.” They all fear the Naxalites. Indeed, the only primary school in the village is closed for want of a teacher.
Shanti (10), a school student, said her teacher had not come to work for a week. Roads in her village are in tatters, while drinking water and electricity are a far cry for the villagers, she lamented.
The story is repeated in several other villages in the vicinity. The familiar tale of exploitation of tribals, lack of development, Government apathy and illiteracy has contributed to the present state of affairs in large areas of Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Bihar and parts of Maharashtra. The Naxalites who have worked systematically for over three decades are now getting their reward in the form of larger areas under their control. Significantly, CPI(Maoist) has now its presence in at least 160 districts in the country spread over nine States.
According to data available with Ministry of Home Affairs, this year at least 513 deaths reportedly caused due to Maoist violence. Out of this 182 in Chhattisgarh, 137 in Jharkhand, 50 in Maharashtra, 49 in Odisha and Bihar, 40 in West Bengal etc. Out of them 389 were civilians, 124 were security forces personals. And 1728 Maoists have been arrested. In the year 2010, Odisha had witnessed 54 Naxal-related killings and during the previous year, 78 Naxals had been killed. The most shocking aspect is that the ultras have successfully penetrated in the new districts like Kalahandi, Nuapara, Balangir and Bargarh.
During the last two weeks, Naxals belonging to the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist) went on a rampage destroying school buildings, setting on fire mobile towers, blowing up railway lines, snapping communication tools and have hacked several persons to death in south and north-west Odisha. Not only have they pasted posters warning the common people, even a few MLAs were threatened not to cooperate with the police.
All these were done to avenge the death of top Maoist leader Kishenji allies Koteswar Rao, who was killed in encounter with joint command forces on November 24 last in West Bengal. This year’s celebration of People’s Liberation Guerrilla Army (PLGA) week which started on December 2 marked unabated violence by Naxals, which is still continuing.
The increasing Naxal presence in Odisha was felt all over the country when on February 16 last District Collector of Malkangiri R Veneel Krishna along with a junior engineer Pabitra Mohan Majhi were kidnapped by armed guerrillas of CPI (Maoist).The incident had put the State on back foot, which released six dreaded Naxals and withdrew cases against them in exchange of the District Collector.
Naxals, who were using parts of Odisha as escape cum retreat zone, have now brought Odisha in the route of proposed Red Corridor and using the State as their defence land to survive from severe onslaught in Andhra Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Jharkhand and West Bengal.
(The writer is a senior freelance journalist)
THE PIONEER PUBLISHED ON 13 DECEMBER 2011 BHUBANESWAR
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