Kanker: Residents of as many as 18 gram panchayats in Chhattisgarh's Kanker district launched a sit-in protest against a new Border Security Force (BSF) camp in the Maoist-affected area. The protesters at Chilparas village in Pakhanjur tehsil of Uttar Bastar Kanker district alleged that the BSF camp has been secretly opened at their village on December 17. "We have been sitting in protest against the camp for the last five days and will continue our protest until the camp is removed," they said.
Sarpanch Sangeeta said, "This camp has been opened in our village without permission. They didn't even ask the Gram Sabha about this. I was also not informed, so we are adamant about opposing the camp. They talk about laying a road, but the road is not for us, the campers will lay a road for themselves. We will only get dust."
Koyalibeda Janpad panchayat member Dilip Baghel said, "Koyalibeda is a tribal-dominated area, that's why the Panchayats Extension to Scheduled Areas (PESA) Act is applicable in this area. In such a scenario, until the resolution is passed in the Gram Sabha, the work is not done in the village. But the camp has been opened secretly without any information/proposal."
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"This area is still backward in health and education. For the convenience of education and health, we have agitated many times in the Koyalibeda block headquarters. There is a shortage of teachers here. A school has classes from Class I to V, but has only one teacher. In such a situation, in which class the teacher will teach the students? We want education and health facilities, not camps," they said.
According to Kanker SP Shalabh Sinha, the villagers are protesting due to Maoists' pressure. "Some villagers are looking for camps when we spoke to them. At present, villagers are gathering in one place and protesting. They know that development work will be done because of the camp. They are happy from the inside. I don't think they will protest for long. We are also doing camp work comfortably," he said.
"We have opened a new camp in Chilparas village, in which there is a team of BSF. This is a sensitive Maoist-affected area of Kanker. The setting up of the camp there has been quite challenging. We had enough force. By selecting the place, we opened the camp from the security point of view through area domination," he said.
