Deepak Kumar Nayak
Research Assistant, Institute for Conflict Management
On July 28, 2014, a Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) cadre was killed and three personnel of the 150th battalion of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), including an Assistant Commandant, Alok Kumar, were injured in an encounter in the forest near Ramaram village under the Chintagufa Police Station limits in Sukma District. Police recovered the body of the slain Maoist after the exchange of fire was over. Police later claimed that reliable sources indicated that another ten Maoists, including ‘five commanders’, were killed, though Police did not recover any other bodies.
Earlier, on July 7, 2014, two troopers of the Commando Battalion for Resolute Action (CoBRA) of the CRPF were injured in an encounter with the Maoists in forested patches of Karikunda under Bhejji Police Station limits in Sukma District. According to Sukma Additional Superintendent of Police (ASP), Neeraj Chandrakar, during a combing operation in the forested patch, the Security Forces (SFs) suddenly came under indiscriminate firing by the Maoists.
Sukma was carved out of Dantewada as a separate District in January 16, 2012, and occupies an area of 5635.79 square kilometres, with a population of 250,159 (census 2011). It shares its borders with Maoist-infested the Bastar, Bijapur and Dantewada Districts of the State to the north and west, Malkangiri District of Odisha to the east and Khammam District of Telangana to the South. Some 3,500 square kilometres of Sukma, more than 75 per cent of its total area, are under thick forest cover. The forest cover, terrain and location of the District give the Maoists a distinct advantage in their campaigns to establish disruptive dominance and evade action by SFs.
The location of major incidents (each involving three or more fatalities) as part of Dantewada District, the newly established Sukma District caught the attention of the nation with the high-profile abduction of the District’s first Collector, Alex Paul Menon, on April 21, 2012. According to the South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP), the District has already registered 23 fatalities (2 civilians 20 SF personnel and one Maoist) in five incidents of killing in 2014, out of a total of 67 fatalities in Chhattisgarh. There were 56 fatalities in 16 incidents of killing in the District in 2013 (out of 128 in Chhattisgarh), and 16 fatalities in nine incidents of killing in 2012 (out of 108 in Chhattisgarh).
Fatalities in Sukma District: 2012-2014
Years
|
Incidents of Killing
|
Civilians
|
SFs
|
Left Wing Extremists
|
Total
|
2012
|
9
|
6
|
8
|
2
|
16
|
2013
|
16
|
26
|
18
|
12
|
56
|
2014
|
5
|
2
|
20
|
1
|
23
|
Total*
|
30
|
34
|
46
|
15
|
95
|
Source: SATP, *Data till August 3, 2014
|
While Maoists fatalities have increased since the formation of the District, civilians and SF fatalities reflect a sharper increase, and account for about 36 per cent and 48 per cent of the total, respectively.
The District has witnessed four major incidents since its formation in 2012, resulting in 31 fatalities [two civilian, 20 SF personnel and nine LWEs]. These major incidents were:
April 9, 2014: Three personnel of the CoBRA unit of the CRPF were killed and another three were injured in a CPI-Maoist ambush near Chintagufa village.
March 11, 2014: Fifteen SF personnel (11 personnel of the CRPF, four of the District Police) were killed in a CPI-Maoist ambush near the forested road in Jeeram Ghati in Sukma District of south Chhattisgarh. One civilian, Vikram Nishad, also died in the crossfire, while another three were injured.
November 12, 2013: A day after the first phase of polling in Bastar zone, two BSF personnel and a civilian driver were killed and as many were injured in a landmine explosion triggered by CPI-Maoist cadres at Kerlapal, when the troopers were returning from poll duties.
April 16, 2013: Nine Maoists were killed in an encounter with SFs in the forest area of Puarti village.
According to partial data compiled by SATP, there have been at least 36 encounters between the SFs and LWEs in Sukma, since the formation of the District in January 2012. The Maoists have also attacked and fired at SF helicopters on at least three occasions and fired at SF camps on two occasions. On one occasion, the Maoists use a rocket launcher to attack the Gollapalli Police Station in the District, though the rocket missed the target and failed to explode. The Maoists have set ablaze vehicles on five occasions to disrupt road construction works.
Sukma lies at the core of the Maoist 'guerrilla zone' in Chhattisgarh, and the state’s presence in many areas of the District is negligible, with the exception of the urban centres. Indeed, some of the worst Maoist attacks have been executed in the Sukma area before the District's formation, including the Chintalnad-Tadmetla massacre [April 6, 2010, 76 SF personnel killed]; the Chingavaram IED attack targeting persons returning from a Police recruitment examination [May 17, 2010, 44 killed]; Geedam [October 7, 2011, three Sashastra Seema Bal troopers killed]; Bhejji [June 11, 2011, three CRPF personnel killed]; Borguda [May 17, 2011, five CRPF personnel killed]; Gollapalli [June 23, 2010, three Chhattisgarh Police personnel killed]; Kerlapal [December 6, 2009, four civilians killed]; Tongapal [June 20, 2009, 12 CRPF personnel killed]; Kistaram [May 16, 2009, 11 persons, including eight CPI-Maoist cadres and three Special Police Officers (SPOs) killed]; Minta [April 10, 2009, 10 CRPF personnel, including a Deputy Commandant, and three suspected CPI-Maoist cadres killed]; Banda [June 19, 2008, three SPOs killed]; Tarlaguda [December 20, 2007, 12 Policemen killed]; Konta [November 29, 2007, 10 Mizoram Reserve Police personnel and two civilian drivers killed]; Jagurugondo [August 29, 2007, at least 12 SF personnel killed]; among others.
One of the most visible signs of Maoist dominance in Sukma is the condition of National Highway 221, which connects Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh. In the 80-km stretch from Sukma to Konta, there is hardly any asphalt cover on the road. The contract for a 198-crore project to repair NH 221 was given awarded two years ago, but work is yet to begin.
Facing a shortage of contractors for carrying out development work in Naxalite-hit areas in the State, Chief Minister Raman Singh, during his meeting with Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh in June 2014, sought two technical battalions of the Special India Reserve Battalions (SIRB) comprising engineers and trained construction personnel for projects in Chhattisgarh. Meanwhile, CRPF has for the first time taken upon itself to build a 7km stretch in Sukma District. The particular project route is being kept under wraps for security reasons.
Ironically, Sukma was carved out of the Dantewada District as part of an effort to improve administrative efficiency. Addressing a public gathering to mark the creation of Sukma District Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh, had said, “all arrangements for better education, healthcare, infrastructure would be in place soon for the newly-carved out District to enable speedy development in all areas”. However, things have hardly changed. On February 5, 2014 State Health Minister Amar Agrawal disclosed in the State Assembly that, in Sukma District, out of 55 posts of doctors sanctioned, 46 (84 per cent) were vacant, and there were no doctors in 13 hospitals. This compares abysmally with the generally poor condition of hospital administration in Chhattisgarh at large, where there are 1,012 Government hospitals, for which 2,948 posts of doctors are sanctioned, and of which 1,432 doctors were at work and 1,516 posts (51.42 per cent) were vacant.
Similarly, Revenue Minister Prem Prakash Pandey informed the State Assembly on February 7, 2014, that, of 62 posts of Patwari, three posts of Revenue Inspector (RI) and three each for Tehsildar and Nayab Tehsildar sanctioned in the District, 17 posts of Patwari, 2 posts of RI and 4 posts of Tehsildar and Nayab Tehsildar, as well as one post of Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) were lying vacant.
The primary education system in the District is also in a shambles. Media reports indicate that more than half the children have no access to classes. In the Konta Block, no teachers have been recruited or given charge in nearly 100 schools (primary, middle and higher secondary) since 2006. Further, the existing teachers find ways to get transferred to schools in villages mostly along highways, while in the interior areas there are school buildings but no teachers. Thus, for example, the Government school at Bhejji (Konta Block) along the highway has 11 teachers for just 33 students, while schools in villages like Ketemargu, Palachalma, Sakaner and Vinda, among others, are without teachers.
Interestingly, the State Employment Exchange itself faces an acute shortage of staff, despite the State Government’s sanction to fill the vacant posts, and is struggling to find suitable candidates for its own Head Office. S.S. Bhagat, Joint Director, State Employment Exchange, agreed that the staff crunch is affecting the routine work.
Almost 70 per cent of Sukma's population of over 250,159 is tribal, and this is among the most impoverished areas of the country. Reliable poverty statistics are unavailable and, ironically, at least 62,759 cards for below poverty-line (BPL) and marginal households under the Antyodaya and Priority Category programmes for access to subsidized foodgrain, have been issued (Chhattisgarh Economic Survey 2013-14), against a total population of 55,647 households in the District (Census 2011). The literacy rate in Sukma stands at 29.8 per cent, against a State average of 60.2 per cent. Only 34.3 per cent of the population has access to electricity supply, against a State average of 75.3 per cent. Just 7.4 per cent of Sukma's population has access to a toilet on their premises; 5.1 per cent of the population have access to tap water; and 94 per cent of the population relies on wood as the energy resources for cooking.
On June 20, 2014, around 200 villagers from the Chintagufa village in Sukma approached the Sukma Superintendent of Police (SP), D. Shrawan, seeking an end to the “daily atrocities” committed by CRPF personnel stationed near the village. These allegations could be genuine or ‘managed’; but in either case do not bode well for the security situation.
Earlier, during the Salwa Judum (anti-Maoist vigilante movement) period, the Sukma-Konta area, then part of Dantewada District, suffered untold miseries due to activities of Salwa Judum groups and the retaliation by Maoists. Thousands of tribals in the Sukma-Konta region were displaced by the conflict, and at least six Salwa Judum relief camps - Dornapal, Errabor, Injeram, Konta, Bangapal, Kasoli – housing 27,727 persons were established. .
In 2012, the District Police had 800 personnel, 700 assistant constables (earlier called SPOs) and some 3,000 CRPF personnel for security in the District. Though current level of deployment in the District are not available, after the March 11, 2014, ambush, State Police officials argued that “excessive deployment” may have triggered the attack.
Sukma is a clear demonstration of the pattern where Maoists have capitalized on the absence of the state and its agencies, consolidating their mass base in a political and administrative vacuum, and evolving operational capabilities in a situation of widespread security vulnerabilities. Given the sheer magnitude of the cumulative deficit across all dimensions of security, governance and development, there is little hope that the people of this unfortunate region will experience any measurable relief from the crushing burdens of deprivation and violence in the foreseeable future.
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