Kids enjoy road work in Maoist-hit village
Video of kids dancing, singing goes viral
An under construction road in an obscure village in Chintagufa area, considered the core area of Maoists, in Sukma district under south Bastar in Chhattisgarh has come into focus with a video showing the local tribal children dancing and singing to celebrate the occasion, going viral.
The video shot in Karigundam village in Chintagufa area, where 76 CRPF jawans were killed by Maoists in the deadliest-ever attack on security personnel on April 6, 2010, was on Sunday uploaded in his Twitter wall by chief minister Bhupesh Baghel with a caption in Hindi that read, “road construction is no less a festival”.
The ongoing construction of the 10-km-road from Chintagufa to Karigundam is certainly an occasion for the local tribal children to celebrate since this was the first time they saw a road passing through their village.
“The 46 km-road from Dornapal to Chintagufa was completed recently. Construction of a 10-kmroad from Chintagufa to Karigundam was in progress and scheduled to be completed this month,” Sukma district superintendent of police Sunil Sharma said.
The region is considered the core area of Maoists and is safeguarded by the first battalion of the outlawed CPI (Maoist).
Dreaded Maoist Hidma, who was said to be behind major attacks on security personnel in Bastar in the last one-and-a-half decades, is heading the battalion.
“At least 100 jawans were killed by Naxals during the construction of the (Dornapal- Karigundam) road. Around 200 improvised explosive devices, planted by Maoists at different places near the road to target the security personnel, have been recovered so far”, the police officer said.