• Night is when the station is on its toes, especially the watch-tower sentries. Bhakesh Patel, in his early 20s, is a new entrant, and has been entrusted with the LMG point (light machine gun) at a watch-tower. His job is to keep scanning the forests with the searchlight and alert the staff on any suspected movement. Almost every night, there is a power-cut for at least three to four hours.

• Although the government installed solar panels for power backup, these panels aren’t working leaving the personnel to depend on generators.

• Three jawans are entrusted with preparing food served twice a day: at 11 am and 7 pm. The menu: dal, a vegetable and rice along with chapatis. It’s only on special occasions, like birthdays or the visit of a senior officer, that a non-vegetarian stew is served. Ironically, while there is no additional allowance for policemen posted in Naxalite areas, they are entitled to a “nutritious diet allowance” of Rs 650 a month.

• A TV set and a VCD player in a tin shed is the post’s entertainment room but basic amenities like safe drinking water are missing. Several security personnel have been killed not by Naxalites but by contracting water-borne diseases by drinking contaminated water. For, the only source of drinking water is a borewell sunk in the middle of the police station — the same well is used for morning ablutions, washing, drinking and cooking.

... contd.