NAGPUR, July 25: The road building work in the Naxalite-infested Gadchiroli district, which was entrusted to the Border Road Organisation (BRO) under the Ministry of Defence, have come to a standstill. The reason for the stoppage of work is not the violent resistance by the Naxalites of the Peoples' War Group (PWG) but the rigid and unimaginative implementation of Forest Conservation Act (FCA), 1980.

According to information, the road construction works was paralysed due to non-availability of boulders and mining of these boulders is difficult in the reserved forest area of the district due to the Act.

The road works worth Rs 110-crore, under the special action plan, was entrusted to BRO three years ago when the Naxalites stalled the works, then carried by the State-run Public Works Department (PWD).

The Naxalites targeted the PWD contractors and opposed the road works in the district and sought other development works. They argued that roads would only benefit the police to start a witch-hunt of poor tribals on the pretext of curbing Naxalite activities. They also pointed out that roads would help the urban-folks and police to reach the inaccessible interior tribal hamlets to exploit them further.

During the process, the contractors were manhandled and killed, and government officials were threatened with dire consequences which led the then Sharad Pawar govt to hand over the works to the BRO. The State Government signed a memorandum of understanding with BRO for construction of 788 km and 170 km roads in Gadchiroli and Bhandara districts respectively.

The State Govt had agreed to give the BRO a sum of Rs 110-crore for Gadchiroli alone while Rs 32-crore was allotted for Bhandara districts for the road works. The works also include constructions of several small and big bridges in these areas. The BRO gave an undertaking that it will complete the road works by 2001.

The BRO which began its work from October, 1994 in north Gadchirloi region, initially did not find any difficulty about boulders.

They were supplied boulders from the nearby areas. However, when the organisation tried to begin its work in south Gadchiroli, not a single quarry was sanctioned for them.

It was not possible because the area is densely forested region and the FCA comes as the major hurdle. Gadchiroli is a densely forested district, bordering Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. One suspects that the rules and regulations were stretched rather too far in the process. However, south Gadchiroli is very densely forested and the forest department is extremely reluctant to allow mining activities in this prime forest.

The BRO was able to complete the road works of about 100 km only while the State Govt had already released around Rs 65-crore to them. Anticipating the problem, the BRO had already sent a letter to the government in June last.

However, nothing was done in this direction so far and thus its 150 staff members along with 50 vehicles and local man-power were reportedly sitting idle.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.