Driving through Maoist heartland,
I felt bladder pressure.
Driver refused to stop car. Instead, says: do it inside the car. I’ll wash it
later with phenyl.” Why? Why?
FEAR is real!
ARUP CHANDA, Publisher &
Editor-in-Chief
“Stop the car.”
“No.”
“What!” I exclaimed.
I badly want to take a
bathroom. leak.
We have left the hotel too early and I was
in a hurry as the man whom I have to meet had called me thrice as he has
reached the coal mine where we are supposed to meet.
We had left Ranchi, the state capital
Jharkhand around 7 am, after taking a bypass crossed a crowded vegetable mandi
at Mandar. Since then I was feeling uneasy.
We were on National Highway 75.
National Highway 75 is 1,175 kms long and
links Parsora in Orissa to Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh. The 147 km stretch
between Gwalior and Jhansi has been selected as part of the north-south
corridor by the National Highways Development Project.
On both sides were jungles and not a single
human being could be sighted so I thought this was the perfect place and I was
carrying toilet paper too.
I literally slapped on the driver’s
shoulder and asked him, “Have I hired you or you are going to pay me end of the
day? If you don’t stop immediately I am going to call your owner just now and
will not pay you a single pie.”
My threat did not work. In fact, he
increased the speed and the jungles on both sides became dense.
“Sir, there are some newspapers on the
back. You do your bathroom on the floor of the car. Once we reach North
Karanpura I will clean the vehicle with phenyl but not stop the car,” replied
Sagar sporting a Hrithik Roshan style hair style and wearing jeans and T-shirt
with crocodile logo.
“You might even throw the shit on my face
but even then I will not park the vehicle here. Are seeing any truck or any car
stopping here?” he asked.
I came to know the reason after reaching a
place called Khalari where a the local correspondent of Prabhat Khabar Vinod Pandey was
waiting for me.
We finished our business about my story on
coal in North Karanpura Coalfields within few hours and went for lunch on a
road side dhaba called, Jheel Restaurant.
The dhaba overlooked a huge pond which one
would think was a mini sea and the water was blue and a cool breeze was blowing
even on a sunny and hot afternoon though the air was full of coal dust.
The sky was blue, the water was clear but
everything under the sun was evil as I came to know the story of the highway in
Jharkhand from the truck drivers who had stopped by for “dal tarka, roti” with onion, green
chilli and pickle on charpoys with Haywards 5000.
Though there were plastic tables with
chairs they preferred to sit with folded legs on the “khatias” with a wooden
plank in between which served as a table.
Those who could afford were having “desi” chicken
fry as they hated “faram” chicken meaning broilers.
The first thing Pandey did was to warn me
that I should not mention that I had come on behalf of a foreign newspaper. I
should say I have come as a reporter of Bengali newspaper from Kolkata.
Pandey, a Brahmin from Uttar Pradesh, is a
teetotaler and I hate strong beer. So I sent Sagar to fetch some lager beer for
us. Some of Pandey’s friends who owned trucks for local transport of coal were
also there to meet me and be my host.
The long distance drivers hence had already
leant about my arrival.
The drivers passed lewd jokes of not being
able to digest strong beer about my potency as a male!
The first thing I asked was for a place to
relieve myself. I was lucky that I was given an iron bucket with an iron mug
but to go to the field behind the dhaba. Having worked in the north east region
of the country for a long time during the height of insurgency it was nothing
new to me.
As we poured beer in tea glasses and
started drinking with fried pea nuts and fried desi chicken I mentioned about
Sagar not stopping the car on our way to Khalari near the jungles where the
stretch was desolate.
Ramashish Das, a truck driver who hails
from Madhubani in north Bihar and regularly plies between Ranchi and Gwalior,
was aghast. “Saab, aap
pagal hain!” (Sir, are you mad?)
“That is one of the stretches where we
drive at break neck speed. Inside the jungles are Maoist hideouts. It depends
when they will suddenly come armed with AK 47s and grenades and stop all trucks
and demand cash,” he said.
Like Das, other drivers too narrated their
experiences.
The 447 km stretch on NH75 is out of bound
for any vehicle after sunset and before sunrise. The police itself does not
allow because of the Maoist problem. The Maoists have the local tribal support
too and that is why they can attack during the day time too particularly in
stretches which have dense jungle and inhabited by tribals.
Most fleet owners other than cash to be
paid as bribes to police and RTOs provide Rs 15,000 to Rs 20,000 to given to
Maoists if their vehicles are waylaid.
“They are not interested in the goods or
harming us. They will simply blow up the truck with the goods. They need the
cash to buy weapons, ammunitions and their supplies,” said Sonu Singh who once
had the experience two years ago and had to walk back to Ranchi along with the
pamphlets the Maoists gave him.
The Maoists at times are sympathetic too.
They give time to the drivers of they know they are not carrying cash but have
mobile phones.
“They will give us an hour or so to speak
to someone in Ranchi, Palamau or Daltonganj whichever place is near and arrange
for cash to be delivered. But if the time runs out by a minute they will blow
up the vehicle. At times, our maliks did arrange for cash within half an hour. None dares to inform the
police and take such risks because they will ultimately trace the truck owner
and gun him down,” said Singh.
But more than the Maoists are highway
bandits who in the garb of Maoists loot trucks.
“They are much more dangerous. They will
hijack the truck and take it deep inside the jungle. Torture the driver and
take away whatever cash he is carrying and leave him there in half dead
condition. They usually target vehicles carrying pharmaceutical goods, tyres,
FMCG, durable consumer goods, which can be easily sold in open market,” said
Ajoy Mishra who happens to be from Orissa.
These bandits are in league with the police
and it is an organized racket, it is alleged. The goods are taken in a
different truck to secret warehouses and easily find their way to wholesalers
who sell them at a concession to retailers.
Then is the story of local transporters who
transport coal.
They have to pay a levy each month to the
Maoists.
Last year the Maoist in North Karanpura
Coalfields launched an attacked and burnt down 17 trucks belonging to private
contractors to teach them a lesson.
“We cannot operate without paying them as
they feel we are exploiting the region,” said Sonu Pandey from Ranchi who owns
two trucks ferrying coal from the open cast mines to the loading stations where
it is put in the rakes.
Abdullah Ansari, who drives a Tata Safari,
has to pay extra as he also has a contract with Central Coalfield Limited, to
load coal from the open cast mines.
I was taking notes and oblivious of the
time. But not Sagar.
“Sir, the sun is about to set, So, its time
for us to leave immediately.” He said.
I could not agree more!
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