The Union Home Ministry’s left Wing Extremism (lWE) Division has initiated a new proposal of GIS mapping of the essential services in the 35 most insurgency infested districts in the country including those in Chhattisgarh.
A project has been initiated for mapping of financial services, school, post offices, health facilities, mobile towers, PDS services, Road and security features etc. in time bound manner. This will help to the stakeholder to take informed decision on the developmental and security related issues, officials informed.
Notably, Chhattisgarh is making all out efforts to provides access to electricity in all left Wing Extremism (lWE) affected villages of the State by March 2018, officials informed.
Notably, Chhattisgarh is among two other states mainly Maharashtra and Telangana which had promised to complete electrification in all lWE affected villages by March 2018.
The State government has targetted to spend Rs 5,036 crore for augmenting rural electrification and energy distribution system, officials informed. Notably, the power supply distribution augmentation system project would be funded by Central government grant, equity contribution from State and loan from financial institutions. The State-owned Chhattisgarh State Power Distribution Company ltd (CSPDCl) which is implementing the project has sought additional funding support from the Central government for achieving 100 per centelectrification of villages in Bastar region by FY 2018.
The special scheme would require additional finding support of Rs 665 crores of additional investment from the work carried out under Deendayal Upadhyay Gram Jyoti Yojana , officials informed.
Notably, the Chhattisgarh Police Housing Corporation (CPHC) is going to play a significant role in the development of a new 100 Bed super speciality hospital in Jagdalpur under the Public Private Partnership (PPP) Model.
The hospital when ready would also meet the medical needs of the government employees in Bastar and the public at large, officials stated.
In order to develop the hospital, the State government has decided to do it through its own subsidiary, the Chhattisgarh Police Housing Corporation. Notably, Chhattisgarh is one of the newly formed states, formed in 2000. It had inherited a weak infrastructure base in both the physical and social sectors. It had genuine constraints like a weak health infrastructure and depleted human resources for healthcare, apart from many of its areas being affected by left Wing Extremism. All this combined to weak health indicators, officials stated.
Many of the basic determinants of health like water, sanitation, and overall healthcare supply were also weak. Although there were a lot of gaps in the state’s healthcare system, the political and administrative leadership of the state nevertheless identified health as one of the priorities right from the beginning and this path has resulted in many remarkable achievements.
There is a large presence of security forces in the Bastar region of the State, which is at the heart of the lWE problem. There are over 22,000 state police personnel in the 8 lWE affected districts of Bastar and the neighbouring district of Rajnandgaon. In addition, there are almost 45,000 personnel belonging to the Central Armed Police Focres (CAPFs) such as the CRPF, BSF, ITBP & SSB. In view of the ongoing anti-lWE operations which are going on on a continuing basis, there are daily occurrences of injuries to security personnel.
These can be both minor and major, often requiring immediate medical attention. In fact, in case of any complications, there is a necessity to transport the injured personnel to Raipur (which is over 300 kms away from most incidents) to provide medical care. Often, security personnel lose lives or limbs as a result of the delay in transit. Keeping in view the limited medical facilities in Jagdalpur, which is the headquarters of Bastar Division, and the need to provide advanced and appropriate medical care in Jagdalpur itself, the Government of Chhattisgarh took a decision to develop a hospital a 100 Bed hospital in Jagdalpur, along with a Trauma Center, officials stated. Development of such a 100 Bed facility in Jagdalpur will have multiple benefits. It will not only cater to the security forces’ requirements but also address the unmet healthcare needs of the local population living in these areas. The facility to be set up should be equipped to cater to all the secondary level healthcare requirements of the population in vicinity with a special focus on curative and rehabilitative treatments related to accidents and trauma cases like bullet injuries, splinter injuries and injuries due to explosions and blasts.
This state of art facility should also be equipped to cater to special needs of psychological and psychiatric care of personnel operating under stressed and challenging conditions.
It is envisaged that such a development initiative in this conflict affected region will not only boost the morale of security forces deployed in such areas but shall also improve the condition of healthcare of the tribal population substantially, thus creating a positive environment for peace. The Chhattisgarh Government will soon take up two and four laning of Kondagaon-Narayanpur and Geedam-Dantewada stretch of roads in insurgency infested Bastar region of Chhattisgarh, officials informed.
It may be recalled that the worst insurgency infested districts of Chhattisgarh would be able to further provide a boost to rural road connectivity work with the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) chaired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi approving a Centrally Sponsored Scheme namely "Road Connectivity Project for left Wing Extremism (lWE) Affected Areas". The project is aimed at improving the rural road connectivity in the worst lWE affected districts from security angle, officials informed.
The project will be implemented as a vertical under PMGSY to provide connectivity with necessary culverts and cross-drainage structures in 44 worst affected lWE districts and adjoining districts in the country, critical from security and communication point of view. The roads will be operable throughout the year irrespective of all weather conditions.
Under the project, construction/upgradation of 5,411.81 km road and 126 bridges/Cross Drainage works will be taken up at an estimated cost of Rs.11,724.53 crore in the above district.
The fund sharing pattern of lWE road project will be same as that of PMGSY i.e. in the ratio of 60:40 between the Centre and States for all States except for eight North Eastern and three Himalayan States (Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh & Uttarakhand) for which it is 90:10.
The Union Ministry of Finance will have to allocate to Union Ministry of Rural Development Rs.7,034.72 crore for this project during the period of implementation 2016-17 to 2019-20.
Chhattisgarh government has set 2018 deadline to complete construction of an additional 3,000 kms of road network with an investment of USD 2.34 billion.
This is based on the basis of an Annuity/BOT/loan from the Asian Development Bank (ADB), official sources informed. Notably, ADB had also been helping Chhattisgarh government upgrade about 916 kilometers of roads in the State.
The works include development of new road sections, two-laning work, constructing and strengthening culverts and bridges, officials stated.
Notably, new stretches of rural roads are rapidly coming up in Chhattisgarh with massive funding support from ADB. The ADB has provided lending support to Chhattisgarh for projects undertaken under Prime Minister’s Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY). The international funding agency had been helping to either construct or upgrade 31,000 kms of rural roads in the states of Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradsh, Odisha, West Bengal and Assam nationally, officials added.
Notably, the Chhattisgarh government has already started taking steps to even settle the forest land disputes under the Forest Protection Act 1980 as early as possible for accelerating the process of laying of roads under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) (Prime Minister's Rural Roads Project).
A time-bound action plan has been chalked out for various departments to settle the issues relating to forest land expeditiously.