In just seven months of IAS officer Taran Prakash Sinha’s joining as the District Collector of Rajnandgaon district in Chhattisgarh, winds of change have started blowing in this Naxal-affected district. Now even in the worst affected areas such as Manpur, there is visible development, which one could never have imagined till last year. Among such developments in the area is the transformation of a 10 km road patch which falls in a dense Naxalite area connecting the villages of Bukmarka and Koracha.
Developing a road might seem easy, but this 10 km patch from Koracha to Bukmarka village was almost impossible to access because of the remoteness. Many police officers had to sacrifice their lives during the development of this particular road.
ENCOUNTERS BETWEEN POLICE AND NAXALS
While speaking to Indian Masterminds, Mr. Taran Prakash Sinha said, “The area falls under a highly Naxalite zone where it was almost impossible to commute at one time. As it is dominated by the Naxalites, the development process was a big challenge for the administration and other stakeholders in the project. The Naxals don’t promote development and try all ways to stop it. At one point, it became so worse that some police officers even lost their lives while fighting with the Naxalites.”
He informed that the road was built on a very rough terrain where people could only reach through hill and stone trails. It was a major area of concern for the administration as five to six encounters had already taken place in that area, that had taken the lives of policemen and even the Naxalites.
PROJECT EXECUTION
The construction work of the 10.70 km long road, which connected Koracha and Bukmarka village in Manpur block, was estimated at a cost of Rs. 5.83 crore. The work started after Mr. Sinha took charge as the new Collector with the involvement of Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) people, Rajnandgaon police and the district administration.
Mr. Sinha said, “As the terrain was very rough, it was very difficult for the engineers to cut the whole hill and make a clean passage where people could commute. Despite all the challenges and with the contribution from all the stakeholders, in just over seven months, we were able to give the road a new shape.”
Halfway into the construction work, people from Pugda, Gagahan, Sambalpur and Bukmarka villages started commuting on it. Mr. Sinha said, “An intervention was necessary to see developmental changes in this area as now people are reaching the villages without any difficulty. After creating a proper passage, the road is being developed with coal tar.”
Mr. Sinha is also working on a plan to connect all the other villages in the district with proper road connectivity by the end of March this year.
