Posters written in Odia by the CPI (Maoist) rebels of the Rayagada Area Committee affixed in tree trunks were found at Parsali gram panchayat office under Kalyan Singhpur block. The posters depicted the pro-people works undertaken by the ultras.
“Don’t misunderstand us. We have come to save lives of people and not to kill them. We are not here to let any violation of peoples’ rights over water, land and forest. We are not anti-development. We want real development which must happen within a defined and definite process. We are here not to destroy peoples’ livelihood, language and culture. Education and health should be universalised. Police can’t do it. You need to judge who sacrificed more lives for these causes — police or MaoistsIJ” read a poster.
Another poster claimed that CPI (Maoist) is always at the service of the Niyamagiri people. “Police are terrorising people at gunpoint to take side of the company (Vedanta) or to ally with the police itself. The police are saying to people to contact them telephonically for house, water, old age pension and plantation. If the people are not heeding, then they are illegally arrested on the plea of being Naxalites. It is a sheer violation of human rights,” it read.
These posters mentioning the Good Samaritan roles of the outfit came out after a day of killing of Banamali Nayak, who was abducted from his house in Karlapat in Kalahandi district which is adjacent to Parsali. The CPI(Maoist), Basadhara-Ghumusar-Niyamagiri division claimed that Banamali was a police informer. For the whole episode, the Maoists squarely blamed the SP and the district administration, who, according to them, were luring the poor people for their extreme poverty, unemployment and helplessness.
“Such kind of hatred tactics of police, especially SP Brijesh Ray, must be condemned by the progressive people, students and human rights defenders,” said yet another poster.
A few days back hundreds of Dangaria Kandhs led by Niyamagiri Surakhya Samiti activists lada Sikaka and Dadhi Pushika gheraoed the SP office protesting arrests of innocent tribal members of their Samiti in the name of Naxalites. They even warned to take this resistance movement forward. On another occasion, many Dangaria Kandhs met the Rayagada SP and complained about non-development in their villages.
“The cause of meeting the SP rather than the Collector has obvious reasons. The people of Niyamagiri are increasingly feeling the area as a police State. This could be a reason why they come to the SP,” said social worker Ajay Rath. However, the SP took these tribals to the Collector who, as usual, assured to mitigate the development issues over a period of time.
During the regime of former Collector Jagannath Mohanty, a market complex was established at Parsali. Then a Government bus started plying to the panchayat headquarters. People could see the grid lines drawn in the village. The road got tarred. There were a few other initiatives like a solar powered drinking water system and a few houses under the Indira Awas Yojana. A visit by some scribes and members of Rayagada Nagarika Mancha to the same village after a month or so had total different stories to tell. It was a process of reversal. Mohanty even had a public hearing in Gortha village.
But his successor Guha Punam Tapas Kumar has not addressed the grievances at the panchayat level in Niyamagiri.