Jharkhand goes to polls on February 3, but this time around, as you enter Golgo village in Giridih district, there are no posters threatening you against casting your vote to greet you. But there is nothing the village can boast of in the name of development either.A former MCC activist, Bhola Singh (47), says, ‘‘There was a time when we moved around with guns. Whenever polls came, we used to put up posters, threatening everyone if they dared vote.But that is past. Now we cultivate our land.’’Bhola is among 37 Naxalites belonging to the Maoist Communist Centre and the PWG who had surrendered on November 7, 2004. Their surrender ushered in peace in Golgo and its adjoining areas. And now, while the Naxalites have announced a statewide boycott of the polls, no untoward incidents have been reported here so far.But what is unfortunate is that except for a school run under the World Bank-aided Jharkhand Education Project, there are no signs of development in the area. With the yield from their rocky and infertile land just enough to last six months, the villagers have to work as migrant labourers for the rest of the year. ‘‘Had my son not been working in a book shop in Giridih, we would have starved to death or fallen prey to moneylenders,’’ says Mahendra Yadav.Before their surrender, the Babulal Marandi government had announced it would provide land to every surrendered extremist and free education for their children, but Bhola, Shiv Charan and Mahendra have not got any of that so far.
