While movement of vehicular traffic was yet to begin in the area, there was little effort to clear the blockades put up by Maoists on Laxmipur-Narayanpatna Road.
Maoist-hit Narayanpatna area in Orissa's Koraput district remained cut off from the rest of the state for the seventh day today after the ultras blew up a portion of a bridge last week.
While movement of vehicular traffic was yet to begin in the area, there was little effort to clear the blockades put up by Maoists on Laxmipur-Narayanpatna Road.
Since the blast took place last Friday, no district official has visited the area while phone lines have gone dead.
"There has been delay in clearing blockades. Traffic to Narayanpatna will resume in a couple of days. Police are examining all security aspects before starting road clearance work," district collector Rajesh Prabhakar Patil said.
However, according to locals, it takes several days to clear blockades put up by Maoists. "Police are reluctant to clear the blockades as they feel it is not their job. While they can only provide protection to people helping to clear roads, officials buy time on the excuse that labourers were not available due to Maoist fear," a local alleged.
Covering a distance of 22km from Narayanpatna by foot to reach Laxmipur a local resident said, "the block is completely under the rebels' control. No government officials have entered the area in fear of Maoist reprisal." While government offices have been witnessing thin or no attendance, the block faces acute shortage of essential commodities as markets have closed down after running out of stocks, sources said.
Prices of commodities have risen sharply in remote areas and the closure of roads has hit the public distribution system. "There is no supply of vegetables and other essential commodities. People cannot travel anywhere. The government must act immediately," a resident of Narayanpatna said.
Residents alleged that the ongoing census work has also been hit in the area as enumerators residing outside Narayanpatna are unable to report for work.
The district administration, however, refuted this.
"It's not true that census work has been affected. Local teachers have been engaged in the work and it is being smoothly conducted. Only the tehsildar, who is the inspection authority for the census work, has not been able to visit Narayanpatna because of the blockades," the collector said.
In August and December 2009, Maoists had felled trees to block Narayanpatna-Laxmipur road, cutting off the area from rest of the state for over a week.
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