Fighting a war: 1 fan for 14 CISF men,1 toilet for 26

“It’s so hot inside that we are forced to stay out for most part of the day,” said a CISF constable. “Whenever we have complained,we have been shouted down with advice like we are not staying in hotels. At times,we are forced to sleep with the rifle under our head. We use it as pillow.”

The jawans are left with nothing after the Maoists looted even their personal toiletries,ATM cards,clothes and mobile phones. After repeated complaints,Nalco installed a water purifier at the barrack. It’s not been working for two months. “The water tastes awful,” said a jawan. Every morning is an ordeal — there is only one toilet for the 26 people.

The 5-foot-high barbed wire fencing has rusted away in several places and the watchtowers could not withstand bullets from self-loading rifles and AK-47s during Sunday night’s firing. “If only Nalco had fenced the entire magazine with new barbed wires complete with concrete bases and high sentry towers,there would have been no casualties on Sunday night. All CISF casualties happened in the first 10 minutes of attack,” said Deputy Inspector General of Police (south-western range) Sanjeeb Panda.

Even the Rs 36000-a-piece helmet supposed to save the jawans from bullets didn’t help. A bullet from a Naxal’s gun pierced through a helmet and killed a CISF jawan.

“It’s a temporary structure and the barracks are near the mines. So we can’t build concrete structures for them,” said Nalco spokesperson Harish Pradhan. Why was there no proper fortification of the compound that houses the explosive warehouse? “We have done enough,” said Pradhan.

Police and CISF officials said the latest warning came two months ago that the warehouse was vulnerable to Naxal attack. In fact,a Naxal,captured recently,revealed that there was a plan to attack the explosive warehouse at Panchpatmali. “We have been telling them time and again to shift the warehouse to a safer place. But they slept over the warning,” said Inspector General of Police (Operations) Sudhansu Sarangi.