After the news about the alleged theft of a 2-kilometer long road, connecting Futkel and Patelpara villages broke, villagers in these two remote areas of restive Bijapur district have now begun to contemplate their next move. The road supposedly built under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) exists only in a dirt pan sign board, near Patelpara village, under Usur block of Naxal-hotbed Bijapur district. The whole incident stems from a weird kind of written complaint made by three local whistleblowers to Bijapur Superintendent of Police (SP) other day, demanding to lodge FIR against unidentified thieves, who decamped with 2-kilometer long Granular Sub Base (GSB) road from Futkel to Patelpara, worth Rs 78 lakh. The whistleblowers also pointed out that the State Government should take a serious cognisance of the matter and they will come to know for sure that many such PMGSY roads are missing not just in Bijapur district, but in whole Bastar division, which is the epicenter of leftwing extremism.

 

Most of these roads exist on paper only and those made are of such sub-standard quality that they disappear without a trace in a few months, indicating massive embezzlement in PMGSY road work, paving way for next course of corruption. The villages are one of many that were earlier labelled as restive and dominated by red rebels’ movement; hence the development of these areas was considered a huge challenge. With time, the successive state governments claimed that they had defeated the ultras and hence infrastructural development commenced without any challenge. However, a planned visit by three whistleblowers, including local journalists Ishwar Soni, Kushal Chopda and Prashun Sharma, to this area on Thursday morning, has opened a can of worms on a widespread corruption persisting within the PMGSY. Futkel, Rekhapalli, Pujaripara and Patelpara were claimed to be connected through a road that originates from Futkel and ends at Patelpara. However, when one visits the village one can simply find a dirt pan road. According to the local residents at these twin villages, they simply remember that some officials had once visited them. “There was never any road built here.

 

We have always travelled through the footpath,” Ishwar Soni, one of the whistleblowers, told ‘The Hitavada’ while referring to his conversation with Patelpara villagers. The whole conversation between the villagers and whistleblowers has been video recorded. So much so that now even the villagers are shocked from the news regarding ‘abrupt dissapearence’ of 2-kilometere long PMGSY road, which was originally proposed to connect the two villages (Futkel to Patelpara) of Usur block to Bijapur district headquarters, situated some 47 kilometers. Futkel can be reached via the road connecting Rekhapalli to Basaguda road. At the intersection of the village, one road connects Rekhapalli and the other 3 km long road connects Hirapur while at the same intersection, the PMGSY Department has put up a board mentioning the road connecting Patelpara. While moving towards Rekhapalli, at some distance, a road has been built for Chilkapalli and after separating from Chilakapalli road, a 2 km long road has been built for Pujaripara.

 

Here, Patelpara settlement is situated right next to the milestone indicating Pujaripara. About 20 to 30 families have been settled here for a long time. The people of the village candidly said that no road has been built yet connecting the settlement. Only fields and bushes are visible all around the settlement, despite the claims made by the PMGSY officials to have made the road. Now, the villagers are also contemplating action as they rose in protest against this blatant act of corruption. They have long remained at the threshold of development owing to the presence of leftist insurgents and now it is time for them to taste some fruits of development after democracy has knocked on their doors.