GUWAHATI, April 29 ? Nalbari district, a strong bastion of the proscribed United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), is today under siege of the Army, police and para-military forces engaged in counter-insurgency operation. Deputy Commissioner of Nalbari, B Kalyan Chakraborty, who heads the Unified Command at district level by virture of his official position, informed that over 20 hardcore ULFA militants had been ?eliminated? in the district in ?encounters? with security forces in the last couple of months. The Deputy Commissioner attributed the success of ?well-coordinated? Army-police operations in the district to the timely tip-off received from the general people about presence of militants. He said, ?But for the tremendous co-operation now forthcoming from the people, it would have been impossible for the security forces to tame militants in Nalbari district which was a strong base for ultras.?
As on today, it has become an extremely dangerous proposition for ULFA militants to seek shelter in any areas of Nalbari district as the villagers are no longer scared of alerting the security forces about militants? presence. The Deputy Commissioner claimed that district administration had tried very hard to ensure that Army and CRPF personnel no longer misbehave with the common villagers in order to remove the ?communication gap? between the people and the securitymen. ?We have succeeded in sensitising Armymen and para-military personnel that the common man in the village is hardly an ULFA militant,? he said, adding that every village in the district is now under strict vigil of security forces, thanks to the wide network of informers among the villagers. It is common in Nalbari countryside to see Armymen in olive green fatigue and CRFP men in khakis patrolling in groups on motor-cycles or bicycles to check movement of militants.
The Deputy Commissioner said ?Implementation of development schemes in the troubled district has improved a lot of late as militancy is on the wane.? He observed that the people had come closer to the administration because of the transparent method adopted by the Government in implementing development schemes through public construction committees set up in gaon panchayat level with elected GP members. ?Fed up with prolonged militancy, people of the district are now bent on giving development a chance. If development work is carried out in a sustained and transparent way, the Army continues to behave itself, if will be impossible for the ULFA to strike roots among people in Nalbari again, he said.?
Stating that Nalbari has a history of corruption in implementation of development schemes, the Deputy Commissioner agreed that the erstwhile practice of project implementation involving the Deputy Commissioner, Project Director and Block Development Officer (BDO) provided ample scope for misuse and plundering of public money. The Deputy Commissioner informed that about Rs 40 crore rural development fund would be distributed among 1000 construction committees at gaon panchayat levels in the district soon for implementation of various projects. As per the guidelines, there will be no involvement of contractors and scope for central purchase of materials.
However, in the Bodo dominated areas in the district where panchayat election was not held, DRDA schemes would be a casualty in absence of construction committees. Besides the administration?s initiative to ensure development, ULFA?s recent desperate drive to extort money from almost every earning member of the society in the district contributed a lot in distancing the mass from the ultras much to the glee of security forces.