Red Bumps On The Highway

 

- Bhavna Vij-Aurora

THE slowness is telling. It has taken the Chhattisgarh government nine years to construct a seven-km road between Dornapal and Jagargunda down the state in its particularly forested terrain. Nearly 450 security personnel have lost their lives in this period, majority of them while deployed in the Road Opening Party (ROP), protecting the construction workers in the region. Another 49 km needs to be built before the road is completed.

On April 24, a 99-strong CRPF team was providing security to workers building this road when it was attacked at Kala Pathar, a point between Burkapal and Chintagufa. As the personnel sat down for lunch inside the forest around midday, 300-odd Maoists launched the attack, catching the uniformed men like sitting ducks. Twenty-six CRPF men were killed even as the accompanying party that was out on the road was held back by heavy firing by Red rebels. Even then the CRPF men managed to return fire. It is expected that 10-15 Maoists were downed in the firing, but it is not clear how many were dead and injured.

Construction of roads has emerged as a major source of conflict between the security forces and the Maoists. Even an earlier incident—on March 11—involved the CRPF ROP that was providing protection to the workers constructing the 20-km stretch between Injiram and Bheji in Sukma district. That ambush claimed the lives of a dozen CRPF personnel. These two roads will connect the remote, Maoist-held areas to National Highway 30 and state capital Raipur, severely affecting their free run.

K. Vijay Kumar, senior security advisor on Left Wing Extremism (LWE) in the Union ministry of home affairs, admits that road construction is a matter of agony. “The security forces have lost several lives and limbs in pursuit of road construction. Ensuring construction of roads is itself a security mission,” he tells