A revolutionary road that Maoists hate
UNDETERRED On March 11, 12 CRPF troopers guarding road work in Bastar were killed; now the team is back on duty
hum hi banvayienge… chahe dus nahin, bees shaheed ho jayen (The road will be built and we will build it… even if 20 are martyred),” said CRPF assistant subinspector Pawan Kumar.
He led a ROP team to the ambush site to ensure work on the road resumed. The InjiramBheji Road is a 20-km stretch the Chhattisgarh government is keen on completing. The road connects Bheji village, considered a Maoist turf, to National Highway 30. “Maoists are attacking us in frustration. Inka jungle raaj khatam karna hai iss road ko banaake (we have to end their lawless reign by building this road),” said Kumar, casting his eye across bushes in the radius of 100m to 500m from the construction site.
Most of his colleagues are not to be seen. Kumar knows they are in the bushes, keeping an eye on each and every movement.
Kumar has constable Syed Yusuf for company. Yusuf said, “Nothing can stop us now. This road will be built.” He insisted the death of his ROP colleagues would not be in vain.
Roads in Chhattisgarh’s Maoist hotbeds are never built without the protective cover provided by the ROP. Over the years, the state government has built around 300 km of roads crisscrossing Bastar’s Maoist hotbeds with ROP support. According to Awasthi, an average of three to four security personnel are killed in a month and about a dozen injured in providing security to under construction or constructed roads in Bastar.
Around 120 ROP troopers are protecting the Injiram-Bheji road. Awasthi said around 5,000 security personnel are on duty across Bastar and among them are more than 30 ROPs. The CRPF’s ROPs are drawn from among the force and a switch to search teams is made depending on operational assessment.
The Injiram-Bheji ambush has forced a strategy rethink. “We have changed our strategy and the situation is under control. The construction work restarted within 10 days, which is commendable,” said Awasthi.
CRPF troops are stationed in four camps in the area. The road will be the game changer, giving security forces swift access to remote locations and aid combing operations. Maoists know this and Injiram-Bheji will remain on their radar. Authorities expect work on the road to be completed in about a year.
Of the 20 km stretch, the state’s public works department built 7 km four years ago before abandoning work because no contractor was willing to take up the project. Now, Chhattisgarh Police Housing Corporation Limited (CPHCL) has taken charge of the work. “A local contractor has dared to start the work,” said a young CPHCL engineer at the ambush site. To prevent Maoists from digging up the road to plant landmines, the CPHCL is making the stretch a concrete cement (CC) one instead of a damur (tar) one. “A CC road is costlier than a damur road but it is more difficult to dig. We know that Maoists will want to plant bombs,” said the engineer.
Contractor Pramod, who has taken up the road work, told HT, “I know I am on the hit list of Maoists, but the situation will change after the road is built.” Getting work done, however, is not easy. “No one wants to come here and work. I have more than 200 staff here and all of them are from Uttar Pradesh. I have to pay them more than the usual rate,” Pramod added.
The Delhi government’s move to use public money to pay the legal fee in a personal case against chief minister Arvind Kejriwal is a “kind of dacoity, corruption” and the BJP will not allow “looting” of the people, Union human resource development minister Prakash Javadekar said on Tuesday.
Javadekar’s comment came amid a raging controversy over the Aam Aadmi Party government’s move to pay a hefty sum to lawyer Ram Jethmalani for representing Kejriwal in court in a defamation case filed against him by Union finance minister Arun Jaitley. Jaitley sued Kejriwal and other AAP leaders for allegedly making “false and defamatory” statements and accusing him of financial irregularities when he was president of the Delhi and District Cricket Association.
The Delhi government has sought lieutenant governor Anil Baijal’s approval to foot the bill that reportedly ran into crores. The LG, on his part, has on whether the appearance fee in a personal case should be paid by the city administration.
Jethmalani said on Tuesday that he would and would appear for him free. The BJP was, however, unrelenting. “Jethmalani sent the bill. Otherwise, this debate wouldn’t have started,” said Javadekar.
“This (AAP government’s move) is completely immoral, illegal. A personal case has to be fought with personal money, not with public money. This is the real character of this party (AAP),” said Javadekar.
CHHATTISGARH GOVT BELIEVES THAT THE UNDERCONSTRUCTION INJIRAMBHEJI ROAD IN BASTAR WILL BREAK THE BACK OF MAOISTS IN
THE REGION