Bullet fear wins over ballot fervour

Sunil Mohan Patnaik / TNN / Apr 5, 2009, 06:01 IST

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Hustings, posters, banners and distribution of posters are all missing in Gajapati district. Instead, there is an eerie silence and a lurking fear.

PARALAKHEMUNDI: Hustings, posters, banners and distribution of posters are all missing in Gajapati district. Instead, there is an eerie silence and a lurking fear. For, Maoists have warned candidates and people against participating in polls. "Everybody is scared. Campaigning is almost absent in the area," Purna Chandra Mallick of Mohana said.
Mallick's statement sums up the fear Maoists have created in the minds of people."It has become a regular affair for Maoists to give a poll boycott call. They may step up attacks to ensure that the call is adhered to. Police may take action. But who would take the risk of ignoring it," Mallick said.
There are two Assembly constituencies, Paralakhemundi and Mohana, in Gajapati district. Seven persons are contesting from Mohana. They are Chakradhar Paika (Congress), Antaryami Gomango (BJP), John Dala Behera (BJD), Thopilli Gomango (Samrudha Odissa), Rubin Mandal (Kalinga Sena), James Raika (BSP) and Gomango Majhi (Independent). Most candidates are avoiding interior areas. On Saturday, some candidates went to Mohana to meet voters for the first time.
Though Maoists have not put up posters asking people to boycott polls and threatening candidates like it is in neighbouring Kandhmal and Rayagada districts, security has been beefed up in areas said to be dominated by them.

"We have intensified patrolling and combing operation in the area to foil any possible Maoist violence and ensure free and fair polls," IIC of Mohana police station Ramesh Chandra Dash said.
Similarly, IIC of Rayagada police station Tapan Kumar Padhi said communal tension continues to prevail at Jiranga, Jalanga, Mandala Sahi and some other villages after the killing of Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati. "Police have registered 47 cases of communal clashes," he said.

Gajapati police have tightened their belts after seizure of two letter pads of the CPI (Maoists) and some posters giving the poll boycott call from Brahmanigaon in Kandhamal district on March 31. Three persons have been arrested. Among them is Aiba Mallick, husband of Brahmanigaon sarpanch.
Police have also organized health camps, funded by the Centre, in different areas on a regular basis. Beside distributing medicines, police also distributed volley balls. But such camps were cancelled after the February 16 landmine explosion at Andharighat near Adaba in which policemen were targeted. "We have cancelled all such camps in the district as Maoists come to know about the movement of security personnel," a police officer said.

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