Eighty kilometre stretch of Sukma-Konta road located adjacent to Andhra Pradesh border in Sukma district of Chhattisgarh is an open field of violence for Maoists. It would rather be true to say that the road is in rebels control considering the fact that they are able to strike whenever of wherever they decide to do so.
Vehicles can hardly run at 20 KMPH speed. This stretch has turned into a dangerous zone as people travelling from Sukma to Konta are feeling terrorised specially after the Jeeram Valley attack on Congress convoy returning from Sukma to Keshlur on May 25 in which 29 people including former State Minister Mahendra Karma and Chhattisgarh Pradesh Congress Committee chief Nand Kumar Patel were killed while more than 30 people including former Union Minister Vidya Charan Shukla injured.
Notably, Konta tehsil is located in Bastar division’s Sukma district which is southernmost part of Chhattisgarh as well as the restive Bastar spread in 40 thousand square kilometre area. This district is part of Chhattisgarh but people of Konta are more dependent on Adhra Pradesh towns like Bhadrachalam, Rajahmundri and even Hyderabad than Chhattisgarh towns. Their proximity with AP is as close as only half a kilometre away Andhra village of Chatti is located along the inter-State border.
Sukma residents find these towns of Andhra Pradesh easier to go for marketing, education, healthcare or others such activities instead of their district headquarters Sukma which is just 80 kilometre away or for that matter State capital Raipur which is 480 km away thanks to pitiable condition of the 80 km stretch of National Highway between Sukma and Konta which takes 4 hours to cross. This is called NH just for name sake, condition of this road is not better than a rural track, big potholes and dust make the travelling a punishment.
In fact, for travelling to Andhra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and other places this is the lone road therefore it remains busy with traffic round the clock but not without the permission or vigilance of Maoist insurgents who keep a vigil on this route 24 hours. According to Konta residents, it’s not Raman but Ramanna who calls the shot in the region. Ramanna is the top Maoist leader incharge of the area and on the blinking of whom eye the traffic comes to a halt, markets are shut and offices bear deserted look. During bandh Maoist choke the road by felling trees found in abundance along the road.
Besides, on the National Highway from Darbha to Konta, a stretch of 150 km, hundreds of land mines have been planted by Maoists which is accepted by not only villagers but even police officials. This is the reason not a single Minister of the State Government travelled by road on this route as Chief Minister or any other VIPs prefer chopper to car for reaching Konta.
Executive Engineer, National Highway Authority, J P Tigga says, “Due to deasphaltation, Maoist easily get the chance of planting land mines on this road which often result in blasts and destruction. For reconstruction of this stretch, `200 crore contract has been awarded to Hyderabad based Tasta Construction Company. Survey of the project is already underway and construction will start very soon,” he added.