After years of promises by Chhattisgarh CM Raman Singh to bring about development in various districts of Chhattisgarh, a small tribal village called Kutumsar in Darbha block lays silent, powerless and absolutely untouched by any development. It talks volumes about Raman Singh's failure to address basic needs of the tribals, leave alone Maoist threat issues.
On the way to this little village of Kutumsar falls Sal forest known for a lot of turmoil and bloodshed in recent years. 35 km away from Jagdalpur, Sal forest is at the doorstep of Kanger national park.
Unprecedented security arrangements has been made in Bastar to man the polling booths, 90 per cent of them are either sensitive or highly sensitive. The Bastar region is politically crucial, last time the BJP had bagged 11 out if the 12 seats and went on to form the government in Chhattisgarh. Faced with anti-incumbency it looks almost impossible for the BJP to better its performance this time and the Congress is sensing an opportunity. After the deadly attack on the Congress Parivartan Yatra on May 25 that virtually wiped out its state leadership, the Congress had made it an emotive issue to win Chhattisgarh assembly polls.
But in this entire political game, this entire region close to Kutumsar has seen no development. There is little or no mobile connectivity. Further ahead from Sal forest, Jeeramghati is termed as a 'dead zone'.
"This is a stretch of 15 km with absolutely no mobile signals," said local guide Man Singh. The road leads to Kutumsar where shockingly inhabitants have never seen light.
"There has been no power in Kutumsar since independence," said 70-year-old Mungli Bai.
It's an irony that power rich state cannot provide its original inhabitants enough light to kill the shadows of poverty.
Comments
0 comment