The Naxal Menace

A small incident took place during our recent field visit to Jharkhand. Our team of five persons, including two foreign nationals were carrying out evaluation exercise in the project areas of TII's Pahal programme in Ranchi, Hazaribagh, Chatra & Koderma. On 4th of March, we conducted a PRA exercise in Dadpura Panchayat of Hazaribagh that showed keen interest of the villagers in the anti-corruption initiatives.

People wanted to know more about monitoring and tools like right to information that gives them a right to question the Babus and newly elected Panchayat officials. They complained that the construction of the approach road for the village was stopped and wanted it to be completed before monsoon. We decided to file an RTI application immediately to enquire about the same.

With a positive note and a framework to address the local problems, our team left the village discussing the future initiatives. We had not even crossed the village in a Bolero, when a man riding a bike called us from behind. We stopped and tried to listen to what the man was saying. He asked for project coordinator of the local NGO partner and alleged that he was involved in collecting money from the rural families who would benefit and get ponds and wells from some other foreign funding support. Four other young men joined him from behind. They demanded that the Chief functionary of the NGO meet them in the village otherwise no one will be allowed to work in the surrounding areas and all will face dire consequences.

We came back to the local NGO's office and shared the incident. Everyone advised us not to take up any future initiatives in the area. Later in the day, the team members of the adjoining project areas in Chatra informed us that a staff of the contractor building the approach road to the village was killed because he refused to pay a sum to the same group of people few days back. That was also the reason why the constuction of the road was stopped. The same people were now threatening to stop other initiatives in the village, if they were not satisfied.

This incident not only shook us, but also disappointed us greatly, as we had promised to help the people in fighting corruption and bringing development through good governance. This state of affairs was simply not conducive to any positive initiatives or it would put many lives on danger.

Though we still hope to work in these areas through some means or the other, it has compelled us to think about the underlying issues and confront it face to face. It also points out to the bigger problems plaguing some parts of our country.