MARCH 11, 2017, Bhejji. April 24, 2017, Burkapal. The two images could be superimposed. The roads are dust, yet to be laid. On them are reminders that this is work in progress — a diversion for a bridge and construction material piled up next to the security camps that line the dirt track. About 200 metres to the right of both roads are forests. Thirteen died in Bhejji, 25 in Burkapal. The government’s response to these Naxal attacks on the CRPF’s road opening parties — men who provide security cover to roads under construction — has been to point at the motive behind them. The attacks, they say, are an effort to stop Bastar’s infrastructure development, which “has been put on priority”. They also say that it’s these “highways of development” that are pushing Maoists into a corner. State data for this year shows that investment worth Rs 3,270 crore is being pumped in to construct roads and bridges in Bastar. And yet, there are constant dangers. With the focus now turning to roads that lead to Maoist-controlled areas, the administration and security forces have been met with a violent response, such as the attacks in Bhejji and Burkapal. Over the past three years, the 56-km Dornapal-Jagargunda stretch, on which Burkapal falls, has seen 12 encounters, that have killed 32 security personnel, and 18 improvised explosive device (IED) blasts. The Injeram-Bhejji stretch, targeted on March 11, has seen 10 exchanges of fire, 43 IEDs have been recovered and 13 jawans have been killed. In a video response after the Burkapal attack, Maoist spokesperson Vikalp, while terming the incident a response to Maoists being killed, said, “Through the excuse of giving benefits (to citizens), to the purpose of exploitation and increase in militarisation, the construction of roads, bridges, mobile towers and rail lines is being done.” From arterial roads such as the Sukma-Konta stretch of National Highway 30, to a bridge across the Shabri river at Dornapal, to roads that seek to cover the “security vacuum” in areas such as Jagargunda and Pamed, the government is attempting this infrastructure push. Sukma and Bijapur, worst affected by Naxal violence, are districts that rank high in government plans. Also in the pipeline, say officials, is a steel plant, and a superspeciality hospital in Jagdalpur. A bridge, much like the one at Dornapal, is proposed at Konta, connecting it to Motu in Odisha. Work has finally begun on National Highway 63, on a stretch between Tarlaguda and Bhopalapatnam in Bijapur. The Railways has also pulled in. Besides a new night train from Jagdalpur to Vishakhapatnam, the line from Jagdalpur to Kirandul is being doubled. Neeraj Bansod, Collector of Sukma district in Bastar, says development in the area, especially south Sukma, is the biggest challenge facing the government. “There is no doubt that it is the worst-affected region, especially Konta block, which has both Bhejji and Burkapal. But our primary focus is on the construction of roads and on developing clusters around camps. It is these bridges and roads such as Dornapal-Jagarargunda, Injeram-Bhejji and the National Highway between Sukma and Konta that will bring further progress in the area,” he says. The roads he speaks about are in various stages of construction. “If you build a road, you can then build schools, hospitals, bring electricity, generate livelihood opportunities. Without the roads, which can only be built through security, there is nothing. And despite the attacks, we are pushing forward,” he says. Ten days after the Bhejji attack, The Sunday Express returned to the 20-km road to find that work had begun after a hiatus of a week. A supervisor urged his workers, all from Andhra Pradesh, to churn the cement quickly. Night would fall in two hours. “There is fear after the attack, but the road must be built. We returned in a week and our only focus now is to complete this 3-km stretch as quickly as possible,” said a worker, refusing to be identified. With the Injeram CRPF camp 3 km away, the road itself has no personnel. Asked where their security was, the supervisor said, “They are there. Sitting inside the forest, waiting for the Maoists.” Fifty kilometres away, on National Highway 30, between Sukma and Konta, even the night is no restriction. Under bright lights, 30 workers continue working. “We have been asked to push the work,” said one. Ayyaz Tamboli, Collector of Bijapur, another sensitive district in south Bastar, says, “Better roads means freedom of movement and better connectivity for traders. It brings down local market prices, gives people more amenities. It also ensures that we can convince doctors and teachers to come and do their jobs in interior areas where they would refuse to go otherwise. We are doing everything to fill up gaps that cut Bijapur off. For instance, every year for a week, the water from the Mriganchal river covers the road and cuts us off. But now, we are building it.” Officials in Bastar point to how the roads bring people closer to “development” and thus wean them away from the Maoist narrative of a people left by the wayside. Four years ago, the road from Chinnakodepal to Avapalli in Bijapur district, to be built further to the sensitive Jagargunda, was a dirt track. With 46.5 of the 70 km road to Jagargunda now ready, Avapalli now has a metalled road that runs through the heart of the village. Residents say Avapalli has grown exponentially in the last two years, with people coming closer and closer to the road. The one unmistakable sign of change stands on the rooftop of nearly every home here: the satellite dish. Sitting under one such roof, in his small, one-room barber shop that is the extension of his home, a 30-year-old is busy attending to his client. “The road has changed everything. The Maoists are still around. Go 4 km into the jungles and you will find them, but they don’t come to Avapalli anymore. My relatives now want to visit me and I can go to them. When my wife falls ill, I can take her to Bijapur without worrying about the bumps on the road. And then, there is this,” he says, pointing to a white electric massager in his hand with ‘Made in China’ written on it. “I went to Jagdalpur and bought this. Now people come for massages as well as haircuts,” he laughs. On National Highway 30 is Bodli. At the Sunday haat here, mahua and other local forest produce is on display. Yet, one of the most popular stalls is the one selling slippers, brought by traders from Andhra Pradesh and Geedam in Dantewada. Madvi, a tribal, has travelled 10 km to Bodli barefoot as she always does. Haggling with the hawker, she says, “Give me the slippers, brother. The rains are coming. maybe the snakes won’t bite if I have slippers on my feet.” Officials in Bastar point to these “changes” to talk about a “perception problem”, of the impression that the entire area is violence-prone. D M Awasthi, Special DG, Anti Naxal Operations, says, “If you zoom out and look at the entire picture, it is much better than before. People forget that once, all of Bastar, which has seven districts, was badly affected. But in the last decade, in places such as Kanker, Kondagaon, Dantewada and Jagdalpur, the Naxals have been pushed back massively. Of course, Sukma, Bijapur and Narayanpur are still vacuum areas, but things have to be looked at holistically.” In Bastar district, for instance, collector Amit Kataria points to the doubling of tourists from 50,000 in 2015 to over a lakh in 2016, with sites such as the Chitrakote waterfalls and Kotumsar caves popular destinations. “Bastar district is more or less free from violence. An airport is now coming up — it’s a Rs 25-crore project — and things are moving at a pace which will ensure that it is ready by the end of May,” Kataria says, going on to talk about the new night train from Jagdalpur to Vishakhapatnam and the new railway line being laid between Jagdalpur and Kirandul. The other rail project, to be built in four years at an estimated cost of Rs 3,500 crore, aims to connect Jagdalpur to Raipur via Raoghat and Bhanupratapur in Kanker. This line, however, has come in for criticism, with activists alleging that its “real purpose” is to aid mining in the Raoghat hills. Yet, as the administration pushes the development narrative, there are many questions for a state that came into being 17 years ago and has been ruled by the same government for 14 of those. The stories of the most crucial roads are also those of inconceivable delays and other problems. District officials admit that on the Sukma-Konta National Highway, often called the artery for anti-Naxal operations, work has been slow — only 22 of 70 km has been made. The road was put on priority since 2009, but construction failed to take off, with contractors failing to turn up for “security reasons”. Till date, only Rs 80 crore of the Rs 255 crore allocated for the project has been spent. In the aftermath of the Burkapal attack, CRPF DIG, Operations, D P Upadhyaya, had expressed anguish, saying that at several meetings with the state government, he had asked for the roads to be built at a quicker pace, pointing out that even after three years, the presence of many camps and everyday patrolling by the CRPF, only 8 km of the 56-km Dornapal-Jagargunda road had been completed. Then, there are stories of corruption and inefficiency, recounted with ironic laughter by the security forces personnel The Sunday Express spoke to. “Last year, during his Lok Suraj Abhiyan, the Chief Minister (Raman Singh) came to Bhejji. A big deal was made of it. There was a security cordon and he travelled on a motorcycle to a patch he was told had been built in the most difficult of circumstances. But when he got there, it was found that the road had broken. A re-tender had to be ordered,” says a senior CRPF officer. Subodh Singh, Secretary, Chief Minister’s Secratariat, Mines and PWD, said these delays and other issues were due to “security problems”. “Earlier, when we asked contractors to work, they would refuse because of the security problems. Only when the security camps increased did contractors begin to show an interest. In some places, there was financial trouble with the contractors like on the Sukma-Konta road. The coordination between different agencies is now working effectively,” he said. These delays, however, have come at a cost, testified by the lives lost in Bhejji and Burkapal. Bijapur CRPF DIG Dhiraj Kumar speaks of the under-construction Avapalli road and the IEDs that emerge on almost a daily basis. “Once in 2015, there was a web of IEDs in a 20-metre radius of the road. Somehow, we managed to defuse them all,” he says, highlighting the constant risk the CRPF’s road opening parties are exposed to. “In an operation, there is flexibility to choose when the team leaves, what route will be taken, how many men will go. In a road opening party, where we are providing security to a road or a bridge, we are essentially sitting ducks. We can use one path one day and another one more day, but by and large, you will always have to be close to the road and the construction site. The element of surprise, crucial to jungle warfare, is completely taken away,” explains a CRPF official. In both Sukma and Bijapur, officials hesitantly admit that there are vast swathes, even up to 30 per cent each in both districts, where the government has no reach at all, with Maoists the only form of government. In some other areas, they concede, the access is limited to anganwadi centres, some primary schools, and a few failing primary health centres. And yet, just across the southern border of the state, for instance, things are very different. A running joke in Konta is that travellers crossing into Andhra Pradesh need no board to announce the border. In a matter of metres, they say, everything changes: the roads widen, the surroundings change from fallow land to lush fields of rice and red chillies. Also, the military camps, which make an appearance every few kilometres on the Chhattisgarh side, disappear. In the 70 km distance from Konta on the Chhattisgarh border to Bhadrachalam in Andhra Pradesh, there is only one police camp. An Andhra Police official said all of this was possible because of a focus on people, on agriculture, and on intelligence. “No development can happen when people aren’t with you, because in these environments, they are then with the Maoists. In our state, the people are with us, and the Maoists have informers. In Chhattisgarh, it is the other way round,” he said. Activist and Bela Bhatia says the only solution possible is a political one and that the ever-increasing militarisation in the area was creating a sense of “siege”. “All lives lost are condemnable, whether of jawans or Adivasis. Roads must be built for the people, to make their lives better in terms of basic needs such as schools and health. But we must also look at why they are being built, if they are being made for other purposes like mining. The Maoists must also look at what they are doing, for they are picking soft targets. Any solution to this can only be political, keeping in mind that laws such as UAPA (Unlawful Activities Prevention Act) and CSPSA (Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act) cannot continue to exist,” she says. On the banks of the Shabri river, to the west of Dornapal, a new bridge built at a cost of Rs 11 crore stands, the fresh white paint on its railing gleaming in the sun. The bridge connects Dornapal in Chhattisgarh to Podia in Odisha, bringing down the 110-km distance between Dornapal and Kalimela, the nearest Odisha town, to 28 km. Under the bridge, on the banks of the river, a boat has been pulled ashore. Before the bridge opened a month ago, it was this that was used to traverse the distance, a boatman earning Rs 10 for every man, woman or motorcycle that crossed over. And yet, obsolete as it is for now, it must remain. For, as one villager on the banks says, “In Bastar, what remains today, may not exist tomorrow. And the people will suffer again.”
