The Bharat Sanchar Nigam limited (BSNl) has set a target of installing 146 mobile towers during the first phase in insurgency infested regions of Chhattisgarh. The towers would be installed for improving telephone connectivity of insurgency infested areas. This was informed in the meeting of Unified Command chaired by Chief Minister Raman Singh at the Mantralaya here on Wednesday.
It was also informed in the meeting that during the current financial year 2014-15, around 80 towers will be erected by the month of March, out of which 40 will start operating soon after. By the month of June, 2015, 120 out of 146 mobile towers will be set up. The remaining 26 towers will be installed by the end of August this year.
In the second phase, BSNl has target of installing as many as 100 towers. Survey for 76 towers has already been completed. BSNl has been instructed to ensure availability spare batteries for mobile towers, so that the used up batteries may be replaced by new ones immediately, the meeting was informed.
Besides, BSNl has also been given instructions to keep batteries in reserve for towers located in insurgency infested areas. BSNl has been ordered to provide proper training to local youths and police personnel for maintenance of these towers. In the meeting, various issues including cure for insurgency problem, development works in affected districts and implementation of public welfare schemes were deliberated upon.
Construction of roads and bridges, and other infrastructural development works were also discussed in detail. State Home Minister Ramsevak Paikra and concerned senior officials of State and Central Government were also present. Additional Security Forces will be appointed at construction site of Dalli-Rajhara- Raoghat-Jagdalpur Rail line Project, it was informed.
The concerned officials have been directed to complete construction of roads before time. The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) has been directed to provide additional security force for construction sites in insurgency infested areas. In the meeting, Chief Secretary Vivek Dhand, Security Advisor to Union Ministry of Home Affairs K Vijay Kumar, Chhattisgarh Government’s Additional Chief Secretary (Home) NK Aswal, Additional Chief Secretary (Finance) DS Mishra, Additional Chief Secretary to Chief Minister N Baijendra Kumar, Director General of CRPF Prakash Mishra, Chhattisgarh’s Director General of Police AN Upadhyay, Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Aman Kumar Singh, Principal Secretary PWD Amitabh Jain, Additional Director General of Police (Naxal Operations) RK Vij and senior officials of Air Force and BSNl were also present.
It may be recalled that Chief Minister Raman Singh while attending the meeting convened by Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh in New Delhi to review the developmental projects relating to roads, bridges, railway lines, mobile towers, post offices, banking infrastructure, education, health, radio and TV connectivity and forest and environmental clearances in left Wing Extremism affected States of Chhattisgarh, Telangana, Odisha and Maharashtra in New Delhi on February 9 had demanded that environment clearance should be increased from 5 hectare to 40 hectares for carrying out development projects in the lWE affected regions.
Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh had also directed senior Railways Officials to ensure commencement of construction work of Railway track from Rowghat to Jagdalpur and expedite the construction work for laying tracks from Dillirajhara to Rowghat. It was also agreed upon in the meeting that the lWE affected States in general and Bastar region in particular required special assistance from the Centre and the Government may consider necessary relaxations in the policies and schemes for the development of these areas.
It may be recalled that Union Minister for Road Transport, Highways and Shipping, Nitin Gadkari had convened a meeting on developing roads in the left Wing Extremism (lWE) areas on January 13 in Naya Raipur. Gadkari had made the announcement to carry out construction of roads and bridges in the lWE areas on Mission Mode with Precast and other advance technologies with assistance from Military Engineering Services (MES) and DRDO.
He had stated that local contractors would also be engaged for construction of roads and other development works in violence-hit pockets. He had reviewed the progress of road infrastructure works in insurgency-hit eight states and heaped praise on security forces and construction agencies for executing the key road projects in red zones despite all odds.
The Union Minister had told the delegates at the review meeting that around 75 per cent of the Naxal problem could be solved if a network of road and bridges is developed in insurgency-hit areas. He had emphasized on using latest technology in road construction work and insisted that roads laying projects should be completed in a time-bound manner.
Similarly, in a meeting held last month in the Mantralaya on January 13 this year, Chief Minister Raman Singh had stated that, for its third-term, his Chhattisgarh Government has set the goal to complete all the road construction works underway in Naxal affected areas of the State by all means. He said that with the support of Central Government, the State will certainly live up to the pledge.
‘Construction of roads in Naxal affected areas of Chhattisgarh is a challenge in itself. Many of our personnel have lost their lives while making efforts to get the construction work completed’, he said. In certain remote areas of Bastar, the circumstances are so adverse that the State Government has to deploy helicopters for supplying ration for villagers and security forces, Singh said. He said that every now and then, Naxalites hinder the progress of construction works. But now the State Government has begun to engage State Police Housing Corporation and other agencies for these works.
Singh said that the work will be divided into smaller tasks, which will be distributed to local youth of these areas to complete.
In the meeting, a presentation on centrally-funded road projects in lWE affected areas of various states was screened. It was informed that the first phase of Road Requirement Plan (RRP) includes the proposal for repairing and upgrading 5477 kms of roads in 34 districts at the cost of nearly Rs7,300 crores. Out of the 5,469 kms of road approved, construction of 3,308 kms has been completed. In Chhattisgarh, construction of 806 kms (out of the 2019 kms of roads approved) has been completed.
Union Minister of State for Home Affairs, Haribhai Chaudhary who was attending the meeting in the Mantralaya had especially thanked Chief Minister Raman Singh for organizing the important meeting in Chhattisgarh. Chaudhary had stated that it is a good initiative. The Maoist violence is a serious problem before the nation. The unity that these Naxal-affected states have shown in the meeting is simply commendable, he had stated. He stated that construction works in these insurgency infested areas should be completed on a Mission Mode. The Union Home Ministry will also extend every possible aid for the same.