I always wear a green blanket| The Christian populations of the villages in Kandhamal district fear a repeat of the communal riots of 2008. |
MASA DIGAL has not gone to a church or a prayer house since the widespread anti-Christian riots of 2008 in many parts of Orissa's Kandhamal district.
“Religion carries little meaning for me today as my life continues to be full of uncertainties. I am yet to forget the harrowing time we had when we hid in forested hills braving heavy rains and survived without food for days on end – until some of us managed to get out of the district while others took shelter in relief camps set up by the district administration,” said Digal, a native of Ladapadar village in the district.
Digal, whose house was looted by rioters belonging to the majority community while he was hiding in the forests, is yet to muster the courage to lead a normal life in his native village. This correspondent met him recently at Ladapadar when he had come along with his wife, Sabitri, to grow a kharif crop on the small patch of land he owned near his house.
“We do not feel secure in our own homes in the village anymore. That is why I don't feel like leaving Bhubaneswar and coming to my village and living here the way I lived in the past,” he said. After the riots, he lived with his family in a slum in the capital city, more than 220 kilometres away from his village, and earned his livelihood as a daily wage labourer.
Digal was among the thousands of people who fled the troubled district during the 2008 communal violence. Although security personnel had been deployed in the urban areas in the wake of the riots, violence continued in the interior areas. Digal went alone to Bhubaneswar during the riots, while his wife took shelter in her parental home several kilometres away from their village.
A few weeks after the riots stopped following the arrest of a number of people who were allegedly responsible for them, many Christian families in Ladapadar were forced to convert to Hinduism at a ceremony organised by the local unit of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP). However, many of those who changed their religion then practise Christianity now. But peace eludes them.
“We were first attacked in December 2007 following a rumour that VHP leader Swami Laxmanananda was attacked by a group of Christian youth. The village church was badly damaged in the attack. But the violence we experienced in 2008 was much worse,” he added. The church has not been repaired to date. So no prayer could be organised there so far.
There are 25 families in the village, including one that converted to Hinduism several years ago. Many of these families live below the poverty line but are yet to be issued BPL cards. Only four families have got dwelling units under the Indira Awas Yojana to date. The work on the main approach road to the village has remained incomplete for years together.
“The local sarpanch, who belongs to the ‘padma phula party' [party with the lotus symbol, or the Bharatiya Janata Party], pays little attention to our woes. We have not approached the district administration in Phulbani, just 18 km away, for BPL cards, houses under the Indira Awas Yojana, or compensation for the damage caused to our church and homes during the two successive riots, as we feel it would annoy members of the majority community living in nearby villages,” said Kishore Digal, another resident of the village.
Most of the residents of Ladapadar have lived outside Kandhamal district after the 2008 riots, which had made Kandhamal look like a killing field. The story is the same in many other villages as well in the district. And peace continues to elude the poor majority who live in their villages now.
Communal violence started in Kandhamal soon after the killing of Swami Laxmanananda in one of his ashrams in the district on the night of August 23, 2008. Hundreds of houses, churches and prayer houses belonging to tribal Christians were damaged or burnt down.
Even though the Maoists claimed that they had killed the VHP leader, the Sangh Parivar preferred to believe that the crime was the handiwork of tribal Christians. Soon communal violence engulfed most parts of the district. Members of the Christian community had to run for their lives. They hid in forests until they could go to relief camps or to distant towns. More than 25,000 people were forced to live in relief camps in the district and in places like Bhubaneswar, Berhampur and Cuttack for months together.
Those who failed to escape were killed by rampaging mobs. The exact death toll is still a matter of conjecture. While human rights groups estimate that over 100 people were killed, the State government puts the figure at 38.
Insecurity
Why are the Christian families still feeling insecure in their own hamlets tucked in the forests and hills of this picturesque district? This is because there has been little interaction or exchange of views between the members of the minority and majority communities till date. Very few meetings of the peace committee were held at Phulbani, while attacks on Christian families continued in some areas.
Besides, prosecution of many of those who had indulged in rioting, arson and killing has not been possible for a variety of reasons. The main reason is that the Christians fear to depose before the police or a court against members of the majority community who attacked them and their homes.
According to the Kandhamal police, a total of 828 cases were registered in the aftermath of the 2008 riots in different parts of the district even though filing complaints with the police was a difficult task for the riot victims. The victims say that they are not aware of the fate of their complaints.
The Kandhamal police have so far closed, and have the final report in, as many as 255 cases. Although the allegations made in the complaints were found to be true, the police had no clues, eyewitnesses or evidence to establish the cases and book those involved.
Kandhamal Superintendent of Police Praveen Kumar, who has been holding his post since the time of the violence, said that while investigations into 225 cases had been closed, the police had been able to complete investigations and file charge sheets in 410 cases in the two fast-track courts set up for the purpose. The remaining cases were still under investigation, he said.
All cases relating to the 2008 riots were being handled by the district police, while the cases relating to the murder of Laxmanananda and two incidents of rape went to the Crime Branch.
Two separate judicial commissions, both headed by retired High Court judges, were set up to probe the riots of 2007 and 2008. Both have submitted their interim reports, and the final reports and recommendations are awaited.
The fast-track courts have disposed of more than 120 cases until the second week of August; of the accused, 450 have been acquitted and 150, including the BJP legislator Manoj Pradhan, convicted.
The Church and the Sangh
How did the Church and the Sangh Parivar become active in Kandhamal? The vast majority of the people in the district are poor and gullible tribal people who easily accepted any religion or belief that came their way. When Christian preachers first made headway, Sangh Parivar leaders came up with a counter-conversion campaign, said Lambodar Kanhar, the main leader of the Kui Samaj Coordination Committee (KSCC) of Kandhamal. Kanhar, a lawyer in Phulbani, has been taking up cases for members of the Kondh tribe in the district for several years now.
Kanhar pointed out that though the Church and the Sangh organisations were not active in Kandhamal in the post-2008 riots period, the situation in the district remained volatile. Tension prevailed more in the interior areas, he said. “In many pockets, both sides continue to dislike each other and are looking for opportunities to attack each other,” said Kanhar. “The tribal people were neither Hindus nor Christians originally and were leading a miserable life since the government was doing very little for their welfare,” he pointed out.
The majority of the Kondh people are now demanding government intervention to address their various problems. One of their major demands is that the constitutional rights of the tribal people be protected and they be allowed to enjoy reservation in government jobs and pro-poor schemes. Much of their land is allegedly in the custody of Christian or upper-caste Hindu families. Another demand of the KSCC is that landless tribal families be given land rights.
The riot-hit population blames the Naveen Patnaik government for the poor compensation and rehabilitation packages. The Sangh Parivar criticises the government for “implicating” its men in cases relating to the riots. Kanhar, for his part, alleged that the administration had failed to address the real issues facing the poor. The district lacks food security and does not have a railway link.
A senior police officer from Kandhamal said the district's plight was a complex one. It was one of the less administered regions of the State even during British rule. In fact, until the 2008 riots the district had only three revenue blocks to cater to a population spread over vast areas. When the Chief Minister faced severe criticism after the riots for not taking the problems of the poor of Kandhamal seriously, 12 more blocks were created.
The majority of the people of Kandhamal continue to live in abject poverty. They do not get adequate job opportunities under the various government schemes and just prices for their agricultural and forest produce. Patnaik, however, continues to project a clean and pro-poor image before the people. While entertaining a large number of private companies that have come forward to set up steel plants, alumina refineries, thermal power plants and ports, he and his Biju Janata Dal have been able to run the government without much difficulty primarily because the main Opposition party, the Congress, has been a divided house since he took over in 2000. Despite the various charges against his government – allegedly turning a blind eye to large-scale illegal mining, failing to address the problems of farmers and those facing displacement by industries, and so on – Patnaik has by and large managed to keep the media in good humour by blaming the Centre for all the problems of the State.
Although the BJP was a partner in his government when Kandhamal witnessed communal violence, Patnaik managed to don a secular face by severing his party's ties with the saffron party days before the 2009 Assembly elections.
The government, which described the 2008 violence as an ethno-communal conflict though both the majority and minority communities have tribal and non-tribal populations, has so far failed to bring any perceptible change in the lives of the riot victims as well as the other tribal people and Dalits. It has also not been able to do much with regard to the conflicts over land rights or the issue of reservation.
In the post-riot period, many non-governmental organisations and civil society leaders have also maintained an indifferent attitude towards Kandhamal's problems, including the rise of Maoists. Meanwhile, the National Solidarity Forum, a countrywide platform of civil society organisations, has called for the observation of August 25 as “Kandhamal Day” to express solidarity with the victims and survivors of the violence. With a view to exerting pressure on the Central government, it plans to organise a people's tribunal between August 22 and 24 in New Delhi.
It is high time the State government did something to prevent a repeat of the 2007 and 2008 violence.
| Inflation has impacted the lives of lakhs of tribal families living in the backward regions of Orissa like never before. |
AS the sun rises over the green-clad hills in Pipalsahi hamlet under Tikabali block of Orissa's Kandhamal district, Bipra Mallick and his wife, Ambati Mallick, wake up and worry about their day's income and expenditure. How will they sustain the family of six when the prices of essential commodities are rising by the day? Bipra's family has been eligible for 25 kilogrammes of rice at Rs.2 a kg under the below poverty line (BPL) ration card scheme since 2008. Since this is not sufficient for the whole month, he buys more low-quality rice from the market at Rs.16 or Rs.17 a kg.
There is extreme poverty, food scarcity and lack of job opportunities in the area. That was why Bipra sent away two of his young sons to work in a coir manufacturing unit in far-off Kerala about a month ago. The couple, their two daughters, the youngest son and Bipra's widowed mother subsist on the daily wage he earns.
Bipra is a landless agricultural labourer for most part of the year. He also gets work under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS). But since he does not get work on a daily basis and since labour-intensive work, such as building infrastructure, is not undertaken all through the year, he struggles to make ends meet. The rainy season is the worst part of the year for the Mallicks and the other families living in the hamlet as no construction work is undertaken in those months. The hamlet has one pucca house and a few dwelling units provided to BPL families under the Indira Awas Yojana.
Bipra's family is not the only one affected by inflation and price rise. Inflation has impacted the lives of millions of poor tribal people living in the backward interior regions of Orissa like never before.
Prasanta Bindhani, a 30-year-old tribal youth of Kambadanga village situated along the Phulbani-Tikabali road finds it difficult to meet the day-to-day needs of his three-member family as he does not possess a BPL card and does not own landed property. In addition to this, he has to find money to buy medicines for his daughter whenever she has an attack of malaria, which is endemic in the region.
Three years ago, Prasanta had applied for a BPL card to avail himself of rice at Rs.2 a kg. But the card has not been issued to him till date. The local sarpanch told him that the authorities had stopped issuing new BPL cards for the past several months.
Rajendra Kumar Gurgi, a sharecropper in Bedasunga village located a few kilometres from the Tikabali block headquarters town, was working in the fields near his home when this correspondent met him. He also does not possess a BPL card, which would have helped him cope with price rise. “I have serious problems in meeting the daily needs of the family. Moreover, lack of irrigation facilities in the region is affecting my agricultural operations,” he said.
Sixty-year-old Patras Mallick accuses the Naveen Patnaik government of thriving on “false promises”. He and his family have been living in a tent in Shanti Nagar, a rehabilitation colony for the victims of the anti-Christian riots of 2008, at Nandagiri village near G. Udaygiri town. Fifty-eight families had fled their villages during the communal violence that broke out in the aftermath of the killing of Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Laxmanananda Saraswati. Eleven families, including that of Patras Mallick, are yet to be given land and financial help to build a dwelling unit in Shanti Nagar.
The residents of Shanti Nagar complained that the price rise had affected them badly. “The situation is so bad that whenever work is not available in the neighbourhood we are unable to travel out to get work as daily wagers because we don't have money to buy bus tickets,” a resident said.
Price rise has dealt a severe blow to the 58 families living in the colony particularly because the government has not provided them any land for cultivation. Also, they are not covered under the NREGS or any other employment generation scheme.
In fact, Kandhamal presents a classic example of poverty amidst plenty. It is said to be the richest district in the State as far as forest resources are concerned. But poverty in the tribal-dominated forested region seems to be a deep-rooted malady.
With very little cultivable land and with the virtual absence of irrigation facilities, the tribal people of Kandhamal face severe shortages of food and income. The business community of Kandhamal mainly consists of people from other districts of the State such as Ganjam, Nayagarh and Puri. These traders pay only a small amount to the tribal and non-tribal farmers for their produce, depriving them of an adequate good income.
In 2008, when the district hit the headlines in the wake of widespread anti-Christian riots, it was also identified as an “extremely food insecure” district of Orissa. The “Food Security Atlas of Rural Orissa”, which was prepared by World Food Programme (WFP) in association with the New Delhi-based Institute of Human Development (IHD), said that the rate of food insecurity was higher in Kandhamal than in the districts coming under the backward KBK (Kalahandi, Bolangir and Koraput) region of the State. Kandhamal has not been included in the KBK region, which receives Central funds under various developmental projects.
The state of uncertainty that has gripped the tribal populations in Gajapati, Rayagada, Koraput, Malkangiri, Sundargarh and Keonjhar districts as a result of the lack of development in every sphere has not spared Kandhamal.
The situation in the region has remained unchanged basically because of a lack of employment opportunities and the dismal functioning of the public distribution system. The administration has failed to issue BPL cards to a large number of poverty-stricken families, adding to the misery of hundreds of tribal families.
The visit to the interior villages and the interaction with the residents made one thing clear: Those in authority who shed crocodile tears for the tribal people and the other economically backward communities are unaware of the ground realities in the tribal areas.
Faced with utter neglect, the tribal people are becoming more and more inclined towards the Maoist ideology. The civil administration seems to be virtually absent in the interior areas of the tribal-dominated regions. The Police Department is, however, more active as the forces are fighting the Maoists.
It is high time bureaucrats running the different departments of the State government started visiting the districts that are far away from Bhubaneswar to oversee the implementation of the anti-poverty schemes of the State and Central governments.
COVER STORY
Politics and the pits
| Illegal mining, often with political patronage, is making the state lose revenues and millions of tribal residents their habitats and livelihoods. |
MINERS' PARADISE
By Prafulla Das in Bhubaneswar
ILLEGAL mining in Orissa was never before as hotly debated as it has been in recent months. Successive governments were always so eager to protect the interests of the companies engaged in mining that reports about illegal mining and smuggling of minerals were never taken seriously. Little action was taken against those who violated mining and forest laws and jeopardised the well-being of the millions who have for generations lived in the mineral-rich regions of the State.
It was in the 1960s, when Biju Patnaik headed a Congress government, that an expressway was built between the mineral-bearing region and the Paradip port, and this road, over the years, has provided the main route for minerals mined in the State to leave the country. Illegal mining caught public attention after opposition parties raised the issue in the State Assembly with some genuine concern in July last year. Before that, scant attention was paid even to the findings of the Comptroller and Auditor General about illegal mining.
In the latter half of 2009, opposition parties sent teams to the areas where illegal mining was rampant. It soon became clear that illegal extraction and smuggling of iron ore, manganese and other minerals had been going on for several decades and had assumed serious proportions from the mid-1990s. The past decade saw further escalation in mining activity as the demand for iron ore and other minerals grew in the international market. It also became evident that various departments of the State government had been turning a blind eye to the virtual loot. In the process, the State exchequer suffered immense losses and the local population derived no benefits. Indeed, for the tribal people who had lived on the land for many generations in Keonjhar and other mineral-rich districts, mining destroyed their forest-based economy.
“In terms of indicators of overall welfare, villages closer to the mines have poorer health, education and production assets,” said an independent study.
The State government initially refused to admit that illegal mining was going on in many backward regions of the State where Maoists had gained a stronghold in recent years. But the growing criticism forced Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to order a Vigilance Department probe in July 2009. After that, skeletons started tumbling out of the cupboards of government departments.
Immediately after the probe was ordered, a few government officials and mining company officials were arrested. But by August, vigilance sleuths stopped all arrests despite registering a dozen cases. However, several months after the scam was unearthed, the Keonjhar district police started arresting small mine operators and those involved in illegal mining, storage and transportation of minerals.
The State government's formal admission of illegal mining came only when the Central Empowered Committee (CEC) of the Supreme Court started its hearings in the case in December 2009. It admitted to the CEC that a large number of mines had been running illegally for years together and that many mining companies had violated mining and forest rules. The admission did not reflect too well on Naveen Patnaik's slogan of transparency.
The CEC hearings, held on December 16, 2009, and then again on February 22 and April 5 this year, came in response to a petition filed in the Supreme Court in October 2009 by Rabi Das, a senior journalist and president of the civil society organisation Odisha Jana Sammilani. (Incidentally, five public interest petitions, filed in the Orissa High Court by concerned individuals seeking a Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI) probe into illegal mining, are pending.)
Rabi Das approached the Supreme Court with the plea that the apex court direct the CEC to conduct a fact-finding study of the illegal mining in Keonjhar, Sundargarh and others districts. He sought the appointment of a commission to investigate and study the modalities of illegal machinations to fix responsibility on individuals in the government and outside it and recommend remedial measures that could be implemented immediately by the Centre and the Government of Orissa.
He also requested the apex court to direct the respondents to take effective steps to stop the illegal mining and prosecute the perpetrators, who had been violating the Mines and Minerals (Development) Act, 1957, Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980 and other relevant laws.
The CEC has submitted an interim report after examining the matter in the three hearings, during which former Advocate-General Jayanta Das, counsel for the petitioner, presented the findings of a study conducted by Jana Sammilani, which had found that 155 mining leases in Orissa had no valid authority.
The CEC's interim report said: “Mining activities were going on in a large number of mines in Orissa without requisite approvals under the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980, environmental clearances, and Air and Water Acts. The mining activities also exceeded the production limit as approved under the mining plans. …A large number of mines have remained operational for long periods of time after the expiry of the lease period because of the delays in taking decisions on the renewal applications filed by the respective mining lease holders and consequently the mines becoming eligible for ‘deemed extension' as provided under Rule 24 (6), MCR, 1960.”
It also said: “A large number of mines are operating in Orissa (also in other parts of the country) after the expiry of the mining lease period. This is being done under the provision of ‘deemed extension' of mining leases provided under Rule 24 A (6) of the MCR, 1960 and is happening because the applications filed for the renewal of the mining leases remain undecided for a considerable period of time after the expiry of the mining lease period. …The ‘deemed extension' clause is primarily meant to deal with contingency situation and to ensure that the mining operations do not come to an abrupt end because of administrative delays in deciding on the renewal applications. This provision is not meant to be availed indefinitely. Moreover, continuing mining over a long period of time without renewal of the mining lease becomes a potential source for serious illegalities and irregularities.”
Counsel for the petitioner submitted that there was a need for a detailed investigation by an independent and competent body as the State Vigilance Department lacked the competent jurisdiction and reliability, especially since the political leadership was involved.
The State government, in its submissions before the CEC on the action taken against those engaged in illegal mining, mentioned the arrests made by the Vigilance Department and said that it had constituted a State-level enforcement squad, and the squad had detected 213 cases since July last year.
The government said that with effect from August 2009, it had introduced newly designed transit passes for use by those transporting minerals from the mining areas to other places in the country and abroad. The government told the CEC that a total of 596 mining leases had been granted to various companies so far, 351 of which had expired.
It informed the CEC that mining activities in 163 mines had been suspended because of the non-compliance of the statutory clearances and other violations. Guidelines regarding the renewal of mining leases had been issued on October 1, 2009. A total of 682 trade and storage licences had been suspended.
However, the State government seems to believe that extraction of minerals drives economic growth and creates jobs for local populations. That unregulated mining benefits only a few is still not accepted by the mandarins in the government who keep sending recommendations to the Centre for grant of mining leases.
In the rush for acquiring mining leases, many new companies were born in the past few years. Many companies, which already had mines in their possession, signed memorandums of understanding (MoUs) to set up new steel plants. Many of these companies continue to export iron ore and other minerals while their plans for industrial projects remain on paper. Orissa has already signed 49 MoUs for setting up steel plants and MoUs for over 20 coal-based power plants, a few alumina refineries and a port. But the government should realise that those who have come forward to invest lakhs of crores of rupees in these projects are primarily miners whose chief interest will be in extracting minerals.
The Chief Minister has promised action against illegal mining, but many believe that it is now up to the courts to take a final view of the matter and ensure that those who have been looting the State's mineral reserves are punished.
As for the judicious use of the mineral wealth, both the Centre and the State government need to take a fresh look at the mining sector. Those in the government should ask themselves why the vast majority of people living in the mining areas still live in abject poverty.
ORISSA now stands at a critical juncture in its ongoing battle against the Maoists. Strong opposition to Operation Green Hunt from the Left extremists has left the Naveen Patnaik government in a tight spot.
The killing of 11 jawans of the Special Operations Group (SOG) of the State police in a landmine blast on the Govindpali ghat road in Koraput district on April 4, just two days before 78 CRPF men were killed in Dantewada in Chhattisgarh, has made things difficult for the authorities who were readying for a massive anti-Maoist operation.
In the wee hours of March 24, Maoists killed three policemen inside the Ambajhari forest in Gajapati district.
In a bid to thwart any operation against them, the Maoists continue to block major roads in the Narayanpatna area of Koraput and damage roads and culverts. The extremists have also put up banners demanding the withdrawal of the Central forces from the region. Blocking roads with felled trees is a common method the Maoists adopt to prevent the movement of police teams in Malkangiri district, which shares borders with Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.
It is not the Maoists alone who oppose Operation Green Hunt. Over 5,000 tribal people from the areas of Malkangiri district where the Maoists have a strong presence staged a demonstration outside the collectorate in the district headquarters town of Malkangiri on April 2 against the operation.
These people, who gathered under the banner of the Konda Reddy Unnayana Sangha, demanded that basic amenities such as education, health care, road connection and electricity be provided in their areas. The administration, which has neglected the forest areas of the district for decades, is now finding it difficult to implement development programmes fearing Maoist attacks.
Maoists have not only targeted security personnel deployed in the area from time to time but also killed village heads, small traders and political activists at frequent intervals, branding them as police informers. More than 20 people have been killed in Malkangiri district in the past six years.
The police, however, deny the Maoist claim. About 90 per cent of the people killed by Maoists had no known links with the police, said Sanjeev Marik, Inspector General of Police (Operations).
“The Maoists are killing innocent villagers after branding them as police informers with the sole aim of terrorising the local people in order to strengthen their base,” said Marik.
Further, the Maoists have been damaging infrastructure such as school and government buildings in an apparent move to deprive the security personnel of a place to camp. Many such attacks have taken place in Sundergarh in recent months.
Mobile-phone towers have been targeted in the southern districts of Gajapati, Koraput, Rayagada and Malkangiri for the past several months. Railway tracks have been damaged on days when bandhs were called, in Sundergarh district and elsewhere.
Marik, who sees the Maoist issue as a complicated problem, says that the Maoists adopted double standards with regard to development work in the backward regions. “It is unfortunate that they are blowing up school buildings and other infrastructure while they themselves were blaming the administration for lack of development work.”
“The Maoists are a bunch of criminals who have no respect for democracy and the laws of the land. They are out to block development,” Marik added.
The Maoists, who have a strong presence in 17 of the 30 districts, killed 32 policemen and 28 civilians in 266 incidents reported in the State in 2009. Counter-operations by security forces have resulted in the arrest of 182 Maoists, neutralisation of 11, and the surrender of eight during the year.
The State government is now taking on the Maoist challenge with the help of four CRPF battalions and five battalions of the Border Security Force. More battalions of Central forces have been sought.
The government has focussed on enhancing the capabilities of the State police by raising the SOG, the Special Intelligence Group, four special security battalions, five India Reserve battalions, and the Orissa Special Security Force.
Sources in the police claimed that the police had been successful in containing the Maoist menace to some extent in Keonjhar, Jajpur, Sambalpur and Mayurbhanj. Efforts were on to improve the situation in Sundergarh.
The authorities, however, admit that the situation was out of control in the southern districts, where people were fleeing their homes. Opposition parties have blamed Naveen Patnaik for his government’s failure to contain the Maoists who appear to be gaining strength steadily. Bharatiya Janata Party State unit president Jual Oram even alleged that the ruling Biju Janata Dal was hand in glove with the extremists. The Chief Minister, however, said he would deal with them with a firm hand. Patnaik has been holding the Home portfolio since 2000, and his tenure has seen the maximum growth of the Maoist menace. In a bid to boost the morale of the police force, the State government has announced that the families of those killed in the landmine blast would be provided homestead land apart from a compensation package.
But the Maoists have issued fresh threats that attacks such as the ones carried out at Govindpali and Dantewada would be repeated if the State and Central governments did not stop Operation Green Hunt.
Top police officiers are tight-lipped about their new strategy.
Prafulla Das DECEMBER 02, 2017 00:15 IST UPDATED: DECEMBER 02, 2017 21:00 IST SHARE ARTICLE 1.62K 43 PRINT A A A ...
