Police survey Dantewada villages: ‘Do Naxals hold meetings? Do they stay here? Yes or No?’

Police in Dantewada have begun a periodic survey to determine the character and stage of the Maoist presence in villages of the district.
The first ‘Panchayatwar Naxal Samvedanshilta ka Survey’ (Panchayat-wise Naxal Sensitivity Survey) was carried out in January this 12 months, and once more in July. Dantewada Police plan to get all 149 gram panchayats within the district to fill out the survey twice yearly.
Some of the questions within the survey are: “Do armed Naxals hold meetings in your village? Do armed Naxals stay in the village? Does the village have basic facilities of electricity, water, road, or school?”
There are additionally questions on whether or not a Naxal incident had been recorded within the space in the course of the previous 12 months, and whether or not the village panchayat representatives lived within the village.
The survey is the brainchild of Dantewada Superintendent of Police Abhishek Pallava, and is meant to gather knowledge on the idea of which gram panchayats will be categorised into inexperienced, yellow, and pink zones — inexperienced denoting a Naxal-free space, yellow being a Naxal-sensitive space, and pink being a Naxal hyper-sensitive space.
“We make claims of Naxal dominance decreasing in the villages, but there is no data to back it. We are trying to get this survey done every six months, to ensure that we have an understanding of the area,” Pallava stated.
Respondents — the sarpanch, instructor, anganwadi employee, or different authorities functionaries aside from villagers — are anticipated to reply the questions in “Yes” or “No”.
If all of the questions associated to Maoists are answered with a “No”, the village is asserted a ‘green’ village. If even one of many questions is answered with a “Yes”, the village turns into a ‘yellow’ village. For a village to be marked ‘red’, villagers and authorities functionaries should reply to Questions 1, 4, and 5 within the survey — which ask whether or not a Naxal incident had been recorded within the village over the previous 12 months, and whether or not armed Naxals visited and/or stayed within the village — with a “Yes”.
“In green areas, we get around 15-20 people to fill in the survey. Villages where fewer people are willing to be surveyed, which we already know are in areas with Maoist presence, automatically become a ‘red’ village,” Pallava stated.
According to Dantewada Police, the scenario has improved for the reason that baseline survey was carried out in January. Police had then recorded 33 pink villages, 42 yellow villages, and 74 inexperienced villages. By July, these numbers had modified to 26, 34, and 89 for pink, yellow, and inexperienced villages respectively.
Among the 15 new inexperienced villages are Gamawada and eight different villages in Dantewada block, two villages in Geedam block, and one in Kuakonda block of the district.

“This mapping is helping us find out which area is the most sensitive, and which area needs greater intervention from the administration. With our questionnaire, we are also trying to find out how many villages have members of [Naxal] front organizations active in them. This would reduce antipathy towards police as well, as villagers want their regions to be declared green,” Pallava stated.
He added {that a} extra complete 100-question survey is being developed to fine-tune particulars from the villages which might be turning inexperienced, in an effort to accumulate extra suggestions on the findings of the police.
Bastar Inspector General of Police Sundarraj Pattilingam stated evaluation of the Maoist presence in a district wasn’t new, although the nomenclature of the zones may differ.
“It helps us figure out if our policing is working, and also helps us to identify where the DRG (the anti-Naxal District Reserve Guard) needs to be mobilised, and where police stations can manage their areas. This is a process carried out at all levels — nationally, within the state, and in individual districts,” the IGP stated.
Deepak Baij, the Congress Lok Sabha MP from Bastar, stated he was not conscious of the findings of the police survey. “I have come to know about the survey through the media. I will be able to comment once the survey is completed,” Baij stated.

Congress chief Chavindra Karma, son of the late Mahendra Karma who was killed within the 2013 Naxal assault in Darbha, stated the police have been overreaching. “How are the police, who are claiming that Maoism has reduced, carrying out such a survey? Why isn’t the revenue department or another department looking into gathering this information?” he requested.
Chavindra’s sister Tulika Karma, additionally a Congress chief, stated: “It is very important to find out who is conducting the survey and how much knowledge of the area they have. It is good to know where the Maoist presence is less, but a competent authority which is independent, needs to carry out the survey.”