It’s not surprising then that the police have themselves blocked the road leading to their station with tree trunks and boulders to ensure that any approaching vehicle has to take a detour of over 200 m.

Admits Inspector General of Police (Bastar Range) R K Vij: “We definitely need more personnel and there is a need to improve the infrastructure and other logistical requirements for our policemen.”

Consider what the government has given — or not given — as weapons in the fight:

• The police station is a decrepit cluster of small, one-storeyed buildings built in the 1990s. The 10 Chhattisgarh Armed Police personnel are put up in a hall opposite Kerketta’s room. This hall is also used to store kitchen provisions and vegetables.

• There is a two-storeyed unfinished structure in the courtyard where construction started in 2003-04 but was abruptly stopped. “We were told the contractor refused to work in the area,” says Kerketta. But so cramped is the space that police personnel have moved into two bare rooms and have used hay for the floor in three other rooms.

• The entire station has just two motorcycles and 10 bicycles. There is not a single four-wheeler.

• Even the motorcycles and the bicycles tell their own story of how serious the government is about the campaign against Naxalites. Says Station House Officer Kerketta: “We had 10 motorbikes, eight of these are now at the Kanker Police Lines undergoing repairs for the past two months. We had 25 cycles, 15 of these have been shifted to CRPF outposts located at Antahgarh and Tadoki.”

... contd.