The CRPF 4th Battalion here distributed several items like radio sets, blankets, mosquito nets, polythene sheets in the Maoist-affected villages like Sana Raising, Ranaguda, Seiskhal villages in Jemadeipentha Gram Panchayat under the Seiskhal police limits.
Several sets of badminton bats with nets and corks, carom boards, cricket bats, etc were also distributed in the schools in the presence of local Sarpanch Dwarika Nilamma, Sana Raising’s ward member Champa Sabara, village head E Shaankar Rao and Inspector Rama Oraon, besides CRPF personnel and police.
The programme was launched with the objective of combating lWE and bridging the gap between villagers and security personnel through wining their hearts.
A reality check by a team of scribes revealed that there was hardly any coordinated effort among the stakeholders like CRPF personnel, State police, PRI representatives, village committees, school management committees, teachers, local Government officials like Panchayat Executive Officer, Sports Officer, etc.
Sana Raising village, which is hardly 14 km from the district headquarters, has a dilapidated primary school building having only one teacher named Santosh Pattanaik and only six students. Pattanaik regularly commutes from his house in Rayagada. The school has received a carom board and a set of badminton bat, a net and pack of corks. In the two roomed school building, one door is broken and the room is not used for long and several abandoned materials are dumped. The other room is clean and almirahs, chairs, tables, sports materials, etc are kept over the cracked floor at many places. The teacher rings the bell but no student is seen coming to school.
Pattanaik, who received the sports materials from the CRPF personnel, agreed that there was no space near the school for the badminton court and he was also not aware of the measurement of the badminton court and the height at which the net should be hung. We also noticed that the size of the badminton bats, the height at which the net should be tied (5 ft) did not commensurate with the heights of the tiny tots. Hence, all the sports materials did have no relevance as far as the tiny students are concerned.
Pattanaik said that he was never consulted before the distribution. He was called to the spot and was given the sports materials. The District Education Officer (DEO) was also not aware about distribution of sports materials by CRPF. The need assessment was never done.
Pattanaik said that the school will be closed from the next session as a non-optimal school and may be merged with the school in Jemadeipentha which is around two km from Sana Raising village. Whether the tiny tots will traverse through jungle and undulated terrain to go to Jemadeipentha is altogether another issue.
A detailed discussion with the villagers revealed that each of the ousehold has received a radio set of Santosh make. Some of the families have pucca buildings which have also got radio sets. Upon inquiry, we came to know that the village has ten TV sets which run through satellite antennas. The rest of sixteen households share viewing the TVs as neighbours. The radio set is of extremely low quality without price tag. As those were available for free, they took those though many of the villagers felt that the radio bore less importance as the people prefer TV to radio. Few agreed that they connect to Visakhapatnam AIR through the radio sets as almost all villagers speak Telugu. The blankets were distributed to old persons and not enough for all the needy. Same was the case with mosquito nets. A few families were supplied with cut-pieces of tarpaulin measuring 2 X 6 metres each. The gaze of the polythene was extremely thin and it could cover only part of the thatched house.
Here also there was no need assessment done in the village. Neither a joint planning was done with the panchayat nor with block officials who also distributed blankets, tarpaulins during Hudhud. The Health department was not consulted about the distribution of mosquito nets. The villagers denied that their village was Naxal affected.
At the Seiskhal police station, in the absence of the Inspector-in-Charge Gyanendra Sahu, ASI AMN Rao clarified he was not aware of any such coordination or planning meeting with the CRPF. As the materials for distribution came from above, they were supposed to be distributed.
“It is disheartening to note that the CRPF, which has a commitment to serve the country with utmost transparency, quality and accuracy, also manipulates the poverty of the local tribals by distributing cheap materials without proper need assessment and consultation with PRI members and State Government officials and even the State police. The procedures of bulk purchase of materials for distribution to poor people by this para military force need to be examined,” said advocate and prominent member of Rayagada Citizens Committee Kedar Panda.