Where terror is the key

In Odisha’s Maoist-affected districts, the term ‘development’ is an aphorism. There are schools without teachers, hospital minus doctors and government offices which are strangely vacant in the absence of any official.

 

In fact what is happening in Odisha is a microcosm of the conditions that prevail in a typical Maoist ‘liberated’ district in India, and according to the latest government count, there are just under 200 such districts in the tribal belt that run through the heart of India -Chattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra.

In Odisha, the districts of Sambalpur, Deogarh, Bargarh, Bolangir and Nuapara, all under the grip of Left radical violence, are areas without any visible semblance of the Indian state. Though the state government claims to have given much attention to development, the situation on the ground belies its claims. 

 

After all, how can you provide development when officials designated to preside, prefer not to visit their offices? The fear of the Maoists is so all pervading that even the state’s armed police forces try to confine their visits to daytime: in case of an emergency, the police request victims to be patientuntil dawn breaks. “It is difficult for us to live in the village. We are under threat from both the police and Maoists. The police visit the village during day time and Maoists in the night. The police consider us as Maoist-sympathisers while the latter think we are police informers. Either way, we are caught in a very difficult situation,’’ says Kanhu Pradhan of the Banjaritikira village.

 

According to him, it is common for the police not to come to their rescue by citing their own security concerns; defying Naxalites means facing bullets. Jhumora and Naktideul are two blocks of the Sambalpur district where the domination of Maoists is complete. Naktideul, in particular, has suffered the most, deprived as it is of any primary education and health. Without proper systems of communications, people prefer the relatively safe confines of their homes – not that it is any foolproof guarantee of their security. 

 

While the Maoists frequently claim underdevelopment to be the primary motivation for their actions, it is precisely their presence which remains the biggest deterrent to growth of any kind. Take Girishchandrapur and Jagannath Prasad, two important villages of Naktideul where the state government has set up two primary health centres (PHCs). They are presently run by two brave compounders as no doctor is willing to serve there. 

 

The scenario at the block offices is not much different. Development works like building roads and providing employment under several central and state government schemes, are in practical terms, controlled by Maoists. Just recently, officials confide, block officials chose contractors short listed by Maoists. “The officials do not want to take any risks. They say they want to achieve their targets and if the Maoists are against them, the task would become very difficult, if not well nigh impossible,’’ says activist Balaram Pradhan.

 

According to him, there are many schools that run without teachers. There is no one in the government willing to examine how schools can be run without teachers and that too for several years at a stretch. 

 

These conditions are by no stretch of imagination confined to Sambalpur. In Bargarh district’s Paikmal area and Bolangir’s Khaprakhol region, terror is the key. The recent murder of a Home Guard in Paikmal demonstrated just how powerful the Maoists are. The brutal slaying took place in the evening; it took an entire police force to reach the spot next afternoon merely to recover the body.

 

The aftermath of the killing is still being felt: more than five Home Guard constables deployed in the locality have tendered their resignation. They have publicly stated that they are not secure working under the police department. While the police has made light of this move, the fear is palpable. DIG northern division, Sanjay Kumar says the decision to quit was their own. “We can not force them to stay on. However we are confident that this would not have any affect on this department”, he says without the usual confidence of a high ranking police officer.

 

Educational institutions and other government offices functioning in the Maoist areas are running at the sweet will of the locals as no senior officer in the district, including the magistracy and land revenue departments, are available for any inspection and assessment.

 

“District Collectors and Superintendents of Police use private vehicles during their visit to Maoist–hit areas so as to avoid identification. If the top people of the district are so soft, what guarantees can they provide for maintaining law and order. One can assume the gravity of the situation of how the government machinery, rickety in most normal situations, functions in such places,’’ activist Pradeep Purohit of Paikmal in Bargarh district explains. If that was not bad enough, Purohit alleges that innocent people are being targeted by security forces deployed in such areas. That has, if anything, added to the peoples’ woes.

 

Former IAS officer BD Sharma, who has spent a lifetime working in ‘Red’ areas (see column) says the only way out is to meet the aspirations of the local people and ‘win’ their hearts through a commitment that has to be demonstrated on ground and in districts affected by Naxalite violence. The biggest challenge before the officialdom today, however, is how do you get to those places.