Even before Naveen Patnaik, his predecessor CM J.B. Patnaik had laid the foundation stone for the bridge. Tenders for the bridge have been cancelled at least seven times, as no contractor turns up for the work. Recently, with the BSF setting up a camp in Janbai on January 22, 2012, construction work was expected to begin under their direct protection. While setting up their camp, the BSF also brought down a Maoist memorial there, and built a sentry post over it, as a stamp of authority. Unfortunately, however, the Maoists struck back quickly, and the BSF Commandant was killed on February 10, 2012. The work on the bridge is yet to commence.
The Maoists have also extended protection to widespread ganja (marijuana) cultivation, as a measure to generate finances in an area otherwise devoid of revenues because of its acute impoverishment and absence of industry. According to the Justice P.K. Mohanty Commission Report, ganja is illegally cultivated in Malkangiri and some other naxal-infested districts of Odisha, and is smuggled through Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh to the rest of the country. With an acre of ganja plantation fetching over Rs 10 million, it is alleged that naxals are raising huge funds from the drug trade, with plantations particularly concentrated in Chitrakonda and Kalimela. Anup Kumar Sahoo, then sub-divisional police ofiicer (SDPO), Malkangiri, had stated on February 4, 2009, “ganja trade being a lucrative trade, once they enter into this business obviously they would generate huge funds. Since the Excise department is ill equipped to deal with this issue and the police are busy with the operational part, there is no one to stop the ganja trade”. Excise inspector, Malkangiri, Bijay Kumar Mishra, adds, "I only have nine staff for the entire district. With this manpower it is impossible to control the trade. We are helpless."
The Maoist support base in Malkangiri is not confined to any particular tribe or area, though the Koya tribe remains a mainstay. However, the two primitive tribes living in the district— the Bonda and Didayi— have generally remained aloof from the Maoists. However, there have been some indicators of Maoist efforts to make inroads into the Bonda tribe. Two Bonda youth— Chandra Kichipadia and Arjun Dora— were arrested in April and November 2010 in connection with the Govindpalli Ghat Road landmine blast case of April 4, 2010, in which 11 SOG personnel were killed on the Koraput side of the Malkangiri district border. Under interrogation, Kichipadia and Dora confirmed that at least 20 Bonda youth had taken training under the Maoists. Sources are sceptical of this claim, insisting that the Bondas are too reclusive to interact with outsiders. Nevertheless, Maoist activity in the Ankadeli, Macchakund, Gavindpalli and Lamtaput area— the bordering area between Malkangiri and Koraput where Bondas have their presence— have been noted to be on the rise. Further, it was recently discovered that Maoists had been using the route along Chintapalli (Andhra Pradesh), Padua (Koraput), Ankadeli (Koraput), Bonda Hills (Malkangiri, but very near the Koraput border), Chitrakonda (Malkangiri), quite frequently. This confirms the strategic importance of the Bonda Hills and the Bonda tribe for the Maoists.
In the panchayat elections of February 2012, 15 sarpanchs (village heads) backed by the Maoists were elected unopposed. So alarmed was the union ministry of home affairs (UMHA), that it directed the state government to countermand the elections of such candidates. The state government, however, chose to ignore the ‘advice’ on the grounds that the existing law provides no grounds for such an action. The UMHA, thereafter, asked the ministry of rural development to block funding to panchayats where representatives were elected unopposed, but was, again, explicitly rebuffed.
The Maoist influence in Malkangiri can be gauged by the near total bandhs (shutdowns) observed every time the Maoists give such a call. Maoist Central Committee (CC) member Akkiraju Hargopal alias Ramakrishna alias RK, as the ‘secretary’ of the AOBSZC, is in the overall charge of Maoist activity in the Malkangiri district. Below this level, the Malkangiri ‘division’ is headed by ‘Ganesh’. Bille Narayan Swamy alias Azad alias Damodar, who headed the ‘division’ till recently has reportedly been transferred. The ‘division’ has three ‘area committees’—Papuluru, Motu and Kalimela— and other local squads, besides a few platoons. In addition, the Maoists are said to have another ‘Koraput-Malkangiri division’, which is active along the border of the two districts.
Significantly, Jal, Jungle, Zamin (water, forests and land), are not the issues in Malkangiri, despite Maoist polemics. Nor is Malkangiri like Abujmaad— an un-surveyed region beyond the ken of the Administration. It is decades of sheer administrative apathy that have virtually offered up this strategically critical area to the Maoists for their guerrilla base.
Recent attempts to salvage the situation generate little confidence. The district is one of the 78 districts brought under the Integrated Area Plan (IAP), the flagship programme of the UMHA, under its ‘two pronged approach’ to tackle the Maoist problem along the ‘security and development’ matrix. In addition, URD Minister Ramesh has come up with an INR 3 billion Special Area Development Plan to be implemented in Malkangiri and the adjoining Sukma district of Chhattisgarh over a period of two years. It may be noted that Sukma district Collector, Alex Paul Menon, was abducted this year, while the district Collector of Malkangiri, Vineel Krishna, was abducted last year.
The real question, however, is whether the state has the capacity to implement these plans. The fate of the bridge at Janbai is dramatic evidence to the contrary. The URD minister would be aware that the district has been able to spend just 35 per cent of its allocated funding under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) as a result of the failure of contractors to take up work, under Maoist threat. The minister has even suggested that, if the situation continues, the onus may be shifted to the gram panchayats to find men to carry out the road construction work under PMGSY— though it is not clear how the panchayats are going to succeed where the might of the ‘emerging global power’ has failed. Indeed, the ‘developmental’ thrust has failed even in districts far less afflicted by Maoist activities. For instance, in its performance audit [Audit Report (Civil)], of the Works Department, for the year 2010-11, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) observed, with regard to the construction and maintenance of state Highways (SH-3,687 kilometres) and district roads [Major district Roads (MDR)— 4,057 kilometres], and other district roads (ODR— 6,813 kilometres) across Odisha: