Disruption to 350 Road Projects in Chhattisgarh, India

Maoists Hold up Road Con­struc­tion in Chhat­tis­garh

Raipur, Oct 19 – Maoist guer­ril­las have held up con­struc­tion work at more than 350 road sites in Bas­tar region of Chhat­tis­garh, an offi­cial said Mon­day. ‘At least 350 road con­struc­tion projects under Prime Minister’s Rur­al Roads Scheme were held up in Maoist vio­lence-hit Bas­tar region, main­ly in Dan­te­wa­da, Bijapur and Kanker dis­tricts. It is dif­fi­cult to con­tin­ue the work due to vio­lence,’ an offi­cial in pan­chay­at and rur­al devel­op­ment depart­ment told IANS. The projects amount­ed to Rs.1,000 crore (Rs.10 bil­lion).

The con­trac­tors had told dis­trict police author­i­ties that they were find­ing it dif­fi­cult to car­ry on con­struc­tion work due to Maoist inter­ven­tion. Accord­ing to police, Maoist guer­ril­las had set ablaze at least 65 vehi­cles this year alone in Bas­tar that were engaged in road con­struc­tion projects. Sev­er­al offi­cials and work­ers who were car­ry­ing out con­struc­tion work were abduct­ed by the rebels and set free only after they guar­an­teed not to return to work.

Experts say Maoist guer­ril­las are hold­ing up rur­al road con­struc­tion projects as they do not want the infra­struc­ture be built up in the inte­ri­ors as it will give easy access to police and para­mil­i­tary forces to the forest­ed areas.….

http://southasiarev.wordpress.com/2010/02/04/maoists-disrupt-construction-of-350-road-projects-in-chhattisgarh/