Officials visit naxal hotbed after 8 years

MALKANGIRI: For nearly eight years, no officer visited cut-off villages in Chitrakonda-Balimela reservoir area under Chitra-konda block in Odisha’s Maoist-infested Malkangiri district, leaving people in seven gram panchayats in the area to their fates. The fear of being abducted and getting killed by the rebels always haunted the officers. To pleasant surprise of the residents of Dhuliput, one of the seven gram panchayats in the inaccessible cut-off area, Chitrakonda Block Developm-ent Officer Larimen Kharsal on Friday walked miles to reach out to them and get to know about issues affecting them, reports said on Satur-day. Seven out of the nine Panchayats under Chitrako-nda block are still cut off from the outer world and no state official ever visited the region after former Malkana-giri district collector R. Vineel Krishna was kidnapped by Maoists on February 16, 2011. Krishna, then 30 years old, was kidnapped while to see a culvert on a road going after attending a public relations camp. He was released on February 24 after the state conceded to all the 14 demands of the Maoists.

The BDO Mr Kharsal along with his team drove 30 kilometres and then walked for over three hours crossing rocky hills and rivers to reach the remote area.

After walking for eight to 10 kms, the BDO held a meeting with the villagers and enquired about various problems faced by them.

The BDO later promised the villagers to provide road connectivity to the Panchayat on a priority basis.

“Lack of road connectivity is the major problem in this region. Many Government welfare schemes have failed to reach out to the beneficiaries here in the absence of road connectivity. So my first priority is to ensure road connectivity to all cut off Panchayats under Chitrakonda block,” the BDO said.

He added, “I have all the support from the district administration for the same. I will begin the work on war-footing and ensure its completion at the earliest.”

The Odisha government has named the cut-off areas as Swabhiman Achal to give special focus on development.