The Centre and the state have set up at least 300 cell phone towers in Chhattisgarh’s Bastar region across villages that have been freed from Maoist control in the last one year, officials aware of the matter said on Sunday.
Cell phone towers are a major point of contention between the security forces and the Maoist groups. For the government, setting up towers is a strategic priority. For the Maoists,destroying them is equally important.
People aware of the matter added that at least 32 such cell phone towers were installed specifically within Abhujmad — a dense forest of around 5,000 sq km spread across Maoist-affected districts of Bastar region. This is where the last fight with armed Maoist cadres is underway — six Maoists were killed in a gunfight on Friday. Security forces have in the last one year entered parts of Abhujmad, which had never been mapped before and was controlled by Maoists all these years.
A senior security officer posted in Chhattisgarh said,“These 300 cell phone towers installed in Bastar zone in the last one year or so were in areas which were planned on paper but government authorities could not enter due to security concerns. The government has said that after taking control of villages from Naxals and setting up camps, cell phone towers along with hospitals are the first priority.”
Installing cell phone towers in areas freed from Maoist control is a priority for the state government and the home ministry to connect villagers with the government, who were cut off and lived under Maoist influence for the last 4-5 decades. The armed Maoist cadres, who are putting up a fight, make it their priority to destroy and burn such towers. Just five days ago, Maoists burnt one such tower in a village in Narayanpur district and killed two civilians in the same area. In the last one year, there have been at least four notable cases of Maoist setting fire to such towers.
{{/usCountry}}Installing cell phone towers in areas freed from Maoist control is a priority for the state government and the home ministry to connect villagers with the government, who were cut off and lived under Maoist influence for the last 4-5 decades. The armed Maoist cadres, who are putting up a fight, make it their priority to destroy and burn such towers. Just five days ago, Maoists burnt one such tower in a village in Narayanpur district and killed two civilians in the same area. In the last one year, there have been at least four notable cases of Maoist setting fire to such towers.
{{/usCountry}}A second officer said that the forces are setting up towers near the security camps to avoid it being destroyed by the left-wing extremists. “Towers have been set up next to camps such as Kasturmeta, Kacchapal. Naxals also want to destroy towers because they think civilians inform security forces of their movement.”
The officer said installing cell phone towers is also necessary because villagers are returning to their homes that have been freed from Maoist control.
Some time in mid-November last year, the security forces set up a cell phone tower at the Garpa village in Narayanpur district, also within Abhujmad. The tower was set up within three weeks of the forces establishing a camp in the village on November 6 , 2024.
“After villages are being taken over by forces, many people who had left fearing the Naxals are returning. In Garpa alone, some 300 people have returned to their houses. These are villagers who had left their homes 10-15 years ago when LWE was at its peak. They will benefit from the cell phone connectivity. Not only will they be able to communicate with their families but also be connected with the government through the phones,” the second official said.
The state government has planned to have at least 79 additional towers in the LWE areas of Chhattisgarh. Overall the home ministry had identified 10,511 places in LWE areas across different states, of which nearly 8,000 towers have been installed.