Altogether 16 contractor firms—which have about 5,000 employees between them—engaged by the railways for the Lumding-Silchar BG project had stopped work after eleven of their employees were gunned down by Black Widow militants in the North Cachar Hills district on May 11. Das said that while the project began in 1997 with an initial target fixed for 2005, militant groups have gunned down at least 50 workers. “The militants have been demanding money from us since day one. While it is a fact that some of us had to pay money in order to secure the release of some of our kidnapped employees, several persons have still remained untraced,” he said.

Indicating that the Assam Government has not done a satisfactory job of ensuring security, Das said things were much better—despite more serious militant threats—in the Kumarghat-Agartala project in Tripura. “Every time there was a problem, Tripura chief minister Manik Sarkar would immediately ensure that foolproof security was provided to us,” he said.

Echoing Das’s views, Ananda Ram Raitani, president of the Contractors’ Association said neither the NF Railways nor the Assam Government have been able to provide or assure any kind of reliable security. “We have invested huge sums of money apart from renting various heavy and costly pieces of equipment, which are now all lying in the sites without any security. We can’t do anything if these are damaged or stolen by militants and miscreants,” Raitani added.

Asked when they would resume work, Raitani and Das said they want “perfect and foolproof security” from the authorities. “We cannot send our employees to the sites in the NC Hills just because the militant group has announced a ceasefire. They won’t inform us beforehand when they withdraw their ceasefire and start killing and kidnapping,” Raitani said, adding “The funniest thing is that whenever we approach the authorities and raise our problems, they ask us what kind of security we want. We are not security experts. It is for them to assess the situation and provide security.”