The People’s Liberation Army of the Communist Party of India (CPI)-Maoist launched no less than 13 armed actions from January to March this year.

Six of these are demolition operations against operating paramilitaries and construction machinery. The latest is an ambush against a busload of District Reserve Guards (DRG) in Na­ya­ran­pur District last March 23 where five paramilitary troopers died. The DRG is a paramilitary force similar to the CAFGU in the Philippines.

Other actions to paralyze con­struction machinery in road projects include attacks in Lo­gar­da District on March 16, Ba­hag­lat District on January 31 and Gadchi­ro­li District on January 27.

The roads are part of the infrastructure project called Road Con­nectivity Project for Left Wing Extre­mism Affected Are­as. (This is similar to the “farm-to-mar­ket roads” under the Ba­ra­ngay Deve­lop­ment Prog­ram of the NTF-ELCAC.) The roads are part of the counterinsurgency program initia­ted on 2016 by the government headed by Na­rendra Mo­di.

The bulk of the funds for these roads will come from the central goverment. In exchange, the Modi government is requiring local states to implement the three agricultural reforms on agricultural product sales, land rent and contract growing which were railroaded into law last October 2020. These reforms are at the center of the protests of around 250 million farmers since November 2020.