Raipur: Contradictory claims were made on Saturday over the ‘hostage’ situation in Sukma district of Chhattisgarh where Maoists were said to have seized 400-500 villagers during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to adjoining Dantewada.
ASP of Sukma, Harish Rathore said anywhere between 400 and 500 villagers were “taken away” to the jungles by the rebels opposing construction of a bridge, while Inspector General of Police, Bastar region, R P Kalluri, called it a “fiction” created by the media.
The Maoists have been opposing construction of a bridge on a river near Marenga village that they apprehended would facilitate increased mobility of security forces during operations against them.
“A large number of armed cadre stormed into Marenga and adjoining villages under restive Tongpal police station limits late last night and took away 400-500 villagers, including women and children, along with them,” ASP Rathore told.
There were some labourers working on the project among the villagers shepherded into the adjoining forest.
Kalluri, on the other hand, said, “The hostage situation is a fiction created by the media….Yesterday, some Maoists came to the village where bridge construction is underway and they have taken five-six labourers who were working on the bridge.
“As is the usual practice, some villagers of Marenga and nearby villagers have gone to the jungle to speak to the Maoists, negotiate and bring these five-six labourers back…but reports of 500-600 villagers held by Maoists is total fiction,” he said.
Security forces are combing the forests around Tongpal to rescue them. Meanwhile, Modi, who is on a visit to the neighbouring Dantewada district, said there was no future for violence in democracy.
“Only plough on shoulders can bring development, not guns,” he said addressing a rally at Dantewada. “The macabre drama of death will end,” he said, referring to naxal violence in the state.
The Prime Minister is scheduled to inaugurate a slew of development projects in south Bastar region, worst-hit by the Naxal menance, during his day-long stay in Chhattisgarh.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday advised students to remain focused on their goals and not to judge their life through the prism of success or failure.
Interacting with school students at Education City in the naxal hub, Modi told them that he saw 125 cr Indians as his family members and working for them never tires him.
While answering a student’s question on how he dealt with stress after working for 18 hours a day, he said he never counts the number of hours he works.
“I never calculate how many hours I work because the moment one does that it is not so enjoyable. One can never get tired while working, what tires a person is not being able to work. The more one works the better it is.
When you finish your homework, don’t you feel happy and satisfied?
“When we live for our own people one cannot get tired. The people of India are my own. Won’t I feel happy to work for them,” he told them while taking their questions.
Asking them not to judge their life through the prism of success and failure, he said, “What is most important how much you learn from your failures. If you are focused on your goal and working to achieve it, these things do not matter.” (PTI)
