Author: Kumar Uttam
Publication: The Asian Age
Date: Aril 5, 2006
If you think violence was the only thing Naxalites
are known for, visit Jharkhand to see "farmers" in comrades. Not
wheat or rice, they cultivate opium.
This correspondent's recent visit to Chatra,
a Naxalite hotbed of the "red brigade" in Jharkhand, early this
month, revealed Naxalites were growing opium in fields of local farmers.
With severe drought conditions every year,
opium is a great crop for cash-robbed farmers of Chatra and neighbouring districts
that share border with Bihar. Opium farming is prohibited, but the local farmers
have no other choice.
The question that arose was why Naxalites
were involved in opium-farming when they could generate enough money charging
levy on local contractors and businessmen.
I was told an opium plant gets ready in just
three months and a kilogram of opium generates at least Rs 30,000 to the producer.
Besides, a kilogram of opium can be yielded in a mere 1,000-square-foot area.
The demand for opium is such that it sells
like hot cakes, even in the international market. But, it is not just this
which forces Naxalites to farming.
The Naxalite-infested areas of Jharkhand are
underdeveloped. Whatever the government's claim might be, the fact remains
that there are no roads, no bridges and no schools in the interior parts of
the state.
Usually, the Naxalites demand from a contractor
30 per cent of the total amount sanctioned to him by the government for construction
of roads, dams, buildings and bridges.
This had been the major source of income for
the rebels ever since Jharkhand was carved out of Bihar in 2000 and there
was a boom in the construction industry. Besides, the contractors also have
to "please" government officials for granting them the contract.
With the construction business fast turning
out to be non-profitable, the contractors recently started looking for other
options, forcing the Naxalites to think of something more than just charging
levy.
In fact, there were instances when the contractors
refused to take up work in Naxalite-infested areas as they had to cough up
a major part of their income for nothing.
Bihar shares borders with Nepal, one of the
biggest markets for opium. The police says the Naxalites smuggle opium from
Jharkhand to the neighboring state of Bihar and finally route it to Nepal.
The Nepalese Maoists also help their counterparts in India smuggle opium.
The Naxalites have their own network in Jharkhand, Bihar and Nepal, which
makes opium farming a "low-risk affair" for them.
The income from opium farming is shared by
the farmers and Naxalites. In return for a brisk business, the farmers provide
security cover to Naxalites from the police. Recently, when a police team
reached Simaria block in Chatra to destroy opium crop, the farmers attacked
them. The administration believes assailants enjoyed the support of Maoists.
Besides that, opium is used to prepare narcotic
drugs like heroin, the concern of the administration is that it is hard to
track those involved in the business.
The deputy commissioner of the district told
this correspondent that they have sent an SOS to the Centre and state officials
to take immediate action to stop opium farming. The local SP, Sashinath Jha,
also admits that Naxalites were involved in opium farming and Simaria's case
could be just the tip of the iceberg, dropping enough hints that opium farming
and subsequently its smuggling could be going on in other areas of the state
as well.
But the local farmers have a different story
to tell. According to them, the state government had imparted training to
local farmers and, now, when they were make good money out of it, the officials
were creating trouble.
"The government had trained and informed
us about the benefits of opium cultivation," says Anil Dangi, a local
farmer.
Some farmers, who dismiss the theory that
they are hand in glove with the rebels, also produced a book of the agriculture
department in support of their claim that said opium was a medical plant.
But the involvement of Naxalites in opium
farming was proved when a Chatra-based journalist with a vernacular daily,
who had come out with a story on opium farming in his newspaper, had to appear
in a kangaroo court (jan adalat) of the Maoists to ask for forgiveness. This
journalist had to assure the Maoists that he would never (and never) come
out with a report on opium farming.
