Gurupriya bridge: New communication link kindles hope for development in Maoist-infested hinterland of Odisha

Editor’s note: Probably one of the most delayed infrastructure projects in the country, Gurupriya bridge in the Naxal-hit Malkangiri district of Odisha, was finally inaugurated last month by Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik. The chief minister also announced a special package of Rs 100 crore for people living in the cut-off areas. The bridge links the state’s mainland to 151 villages and nine gram panchayats that were severed when the Machkund reservoir was constructed in 1960 and the Balimela Hydro Power Project later in 1972. In this three-part series, we look at the change in lives of people inhabiting over 900 sq km of cut off area, the Maoist threat and the politics that delayed the project for over 35 years since inception. Malkangiri, Odisha: It was in June 2008, when a 64-member team — comprising Andhra Pradesh’s Greyhound anti-Maoist force and few Odisha Police personnel — was returning from a combat operation in the cut-off villages of Odisha’s Malkangiri district, that an ambush of Naxalites capsized their boats on the Sileru river and killed around 37 personnel. The rebels had apparently been emboldened by the lack of security cover in the hinterland, long severed from mainland Odisha by the Balimela Water Reservoir. The incident became a major security breach in the district known as a Maoist-infested area and part of India’s Red Corridor. [caption id=“attachment_4920831” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Gurupriya bridge. Image courtesy @Naveen_Odisha[/caption] The cut-off areas are situated near the border of Vishakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh, where an inter-state Naxalite group is quite active. In the absence of a single concrete road or bridge to connect the 151 villages (hosting around 30,000 people) to the mainland, the Left Wing extremists were able to target the security forces through the hilltops along the river. This was not the only incident highlighting the level of Maoist threat in the area and especially to the newly-inaugurated Gurupriya bridge in Odisha, which now connects the state’s Chitrakonda block with the hinterland. In 2011, Malkangiri collector RV Krishna who was visiting the cut-off zone was abducted by the Reds near Jantapai village. Under Maoist shadow Dubbed the ‘Swabhiman Anchal’, the severed zone area borders Malkangiri, Koraput and Vishakhapatnam, and the Maoist wing that operates in the area is called the Malkangiri-Koraput-Vishakhapatnam Division (MKVD). Anti-Maoist operations here have been entrusted to specialised forces like the Special Operations Group and the District Volunteer Force under the Odisha government, and the elite Greyhounds of the neighbouring Andhra Pradesh. Several times joint operations are also undertaken together by these specially trained groups of anti-Naxal combat forces.

The isolation and deprivation of Malkangiri’s interior villages have over decades turned them into fertile ground for the extremist ideology to take root. Such has been the clout of the Reds that they always opposed the construction of the ambitious bridge, issuing threatening posters and even calling strikes in the area to make their presence felt. It took the bridge, for which the first tender was issued way back in 1982, as many as 36 years to come up in its concrete form this year. Despite the area’s history of terror and frequent attacks and bloodshed, the newly constructed link is now being used en masse by the villagers of the cut-off zone. The threats persist, though, with the rebels threatening to blow the bridge up, but security personnel have chipped in with extra security to the people, contractors and others with the hope that the new link will lead to development work that would draw out the severed areas and abandoned people. The Reds are now also reported to be continuously inciting people against the newly-constructed bridge. Despite the threat, Malkangiri superintendent of police Jagmohan Meena is an optimistic man. “The Gurupriya bridge will not only help in tackling the menace of Naxalism in the area but will also bring facilities which were earlier a Herculean task,” he says, adding that “without the bridge, it was not possible to transport construction material, borewell machines or big electricity poles. Road construction was also a pain, while the lack of telecom services still remains a challenge.” The superintendent of police plans to continue with the security arrangements made at the time of the bridge’s construction. Companies of the Border Security Force, which has been tasked with ensuring security, were earlier deployed on either side of the bridge and will continue to be stationed there. “We have ensured CCTV cameras on the bridge, lighting arrangement at night and check posts for scrutiny of passers-by,” he says. The security situation Security personnel involved in making the Gurupriya bridge a reality pointed to the lack of concrete roads to reach the bridge in the past. “If roads are kuccha, threats of IED blasts increase. To tackle this, BSF troops were deployed on either side of the bridge. The challenge was to ensure uninterrupted supply of food and beverages to the troops. We developed a cordial relationship with the villagers nearby and in the process, they learnt to become involved in the area’s economy,” a senior security force officer explains. Currently, there is only one police station for the entire population of the cut-off zone. Ajay Swain, inspector-in-charge of Chitrakonda police station, said the Papermetla police station in the hinterland serves the 151 villages there but is situated in the BSF camp on the other side of the bridge. The lone police station at Papermetla used to get maximum cases related to Naxal issues, says Laxmi Narayan Muduli, officer-in-charge at the Papermetla police station. “With the strength of our police force in the cut-off area, we tried our best to serve the people there.” The district administration and security personnel are making all efforts to wean away the Maoist base in the interiors. Venturing deeper into the hinterland, they have set up a camp 7 km ahead of the bridge, in the village named Jantapai which has been under the influence of the Maoists, a high-ranking police official revealed. The camp, hosting around 100 personnel, was arranged overnight and around a month before the inauguration last week, because had the rebels got information of it they could have tried to mobilise people against the personnel. The camp is now expected to thwart the Naxalites from coming closer to the bridge. Meena is hopeful that access to development will help people shun violence and build faith in the system. “With better access to facilities and resources and improved telecommunication, the villagers are surely going to join hands with us. People were happy to see us and understood that we were there to help. They aided us in selecting land and installing the BSF camp. We went to Jantabei when the bridge was ready and people were happy,” he says. Also Read **Gurupriya bridge: Proposed in 1982, opened in 2018, this Odisha bridge bears testimony to decades of frustration** **Gurupriya bridge: Political slugfest undermines big step towards development as parties fight over credit and rivals allege scam** The author is a Bhubaneswar-based freelance writer and a member of 101Reporters.com.