Kanker.
Mahala village of Partapur area, which is considered to be heavily Naxal affected in the district, has once again returned to its glory. There was once such a fear of Naxalites here that the entire village was evacuated. The villagers had left their homes, fields and everything, they just wanted to live, but then the police opened a camp here and pushed the Naxalites on the back foot.
Gradually the villagers have started returning to their homes. Our Kanker correspondent Sushil Salam has taken stock of the village. This incident happened in 2010, when Naxalites had killed two people including the village sarpanch. After this, the villagers fled overnight to Pakhanjoor. The entire village was deserted. Later, the police opened a BSF camp here in 2018, after which the Naxalites also caused harm to the soldiers several times. Six soldiers were also martyred, but the soldiers died after driving out the Naxalites from the area and now prosperity has returned to this village.
The villagers told that they were afraid to leave their homes even during the day.
Villagers say that around 2008, there was so much fear of Naxalites that people were afraid to come out of their homes even during the day. Naxalite leaders Prabhakar, Bopanna lived in this area with their team. Naxalites used to come and threaten the village at any time. They used to pressure every house to give one child to the Naxal organization. Due to the increasing atrocities of Naxalites, the entire village was evacuated. Then after 10 years, the police established a camp in Mahala village with the help of BSF, due to which the Naxalites got angry and attacked the camp twice, but the soldiers were successful in driving them away. In April 2019, Naxalites attacked the soldiers engaged in the security of road construction, in which 4 soldiers were martyred. Even after this, the soldiers did not lose courage and died after driving away the Naxalites from the area. Now there is no presence of Naxalites at all in this area. The villagers are happy that now they are able to breathe open air.
The administration has given assurance to solve the problems of the village.
Teacher Santosh Kumar Margendra said, the government school is being operated again in 2022 with the help of the police. A total of 34 children are studying in primary and secondary schools. However, there are still some problems in the village and school, which the administration has assured to resolve. Different collectors have visited the village twice, but the shortcomings have not been resolved, but the villagers are confident that their demands will be fulfilled soon and the village will become completely prosperous.