The Naxal problem has no simple explanation - just as there may not be a simple solution. Ensuring service delivery of government welfare, for instance, may not be a solution, though it is essential at all times. One may find services being delivered and yet, the Naxals as belligerent as ever.
Take the example of some of the Naxal-affected districts in Chhattisgarh, the state that implemented the country's first-ever food security Act for whatever it is worth.
The law ensures 35 kilos of food grains, two kilos of pulses, 800 grams of oil and sugar and salt.
The beneficiaries are quite happy. However, besides questions regarding the law leaving out local procurement and distribution, or having nothing to do with food production, does the law help people in the Naxal areas?
It is usually imagined that nothing works in these districts... that the government machinery has totally broken down. One would imagine no fair price shops either in these districts where life seems to be a daily battle, with villagers caught in the crossfire between naxals and Armed Forces.
Well, it is not that bad. In fact, the food department officials in Chhattisgarh give the Naxals a clean chit when it comes to their attitude to food distribution. It is another matter that lack of roads and storage spaces makes the job of food storage and distribution tough for the officials.
The new food security law has seen 13,500 new BPL (below poverty line) cards issued in Dantewada district's four blocks, in addition to the existing 63,666 BPL cards there. In Sukma district, 6,000 new BPL cards are being issued, besides the existing 59,527 BPL cards. In Narainpur, some 7,000-odd BPL cards have been issued. But storage is an issue, as the officials say, since villagers and Naxals do not allow construction of centralised godowns in the districts.
In Narainpur, the food officials keep the grains in three locations in the district since there is no space to store them.
The Naxals also resist building of roads, apart from delaying supplies by closing roads now and then. If one persists on the journey with a truck laden with grains, then one may risk getting the truck being torched. It has happened a couple of times in Narainpur, while food distribution has been incident-free in other districts, according to the officials.
The villagers get the food grains regularly provided they are ready for a trek to the ration shop that is miles away.
For instance, Dantewada, which has 114 gram panchayats, has 131 ration shops. These are run either
by women self-help groups or panchayats or cooperative societies run by locals.
In Sukma district, which borders Odisha and is a sensitive area, three blocks have 132 village panchayats and just 139 ration shops, or one per panchayat approximately. According to K L Pista, the assistant food officer in Sukma, each panchayat has three to four villages and people come and pick their ration in the first 10 days of the month regularly.
Pista says there has never been a single incident of food stocks being ransacked in the Naxal-affected areas. It is food meant for poor families and no one creates hurdles in our way, he says. Pista was earlier posted in Dantewada. Earlier, he was in Bilaspur and knows that it is not the same working in any other district.
"I go to the field and talk to village representatives and villagers, but I feel a certain hesitation when I go about doing this," he says.
So it is certainly not lack of service delivery that is turning people to the Naxals. What is? The answer can emerge provided that either the Naxals or the government want it in earnest. Currently, none seems to want it.
Disclaimer: These are personal views of the writer. They do not necessarily reflect the opinion of www.business-standard.com or the Business Standard newspaper
