Mafia, not bandits, menace in Chambal

Narendra Kumar Singh was not a political icon, but his was perhaps the most invoked name in the campaign for the Assembly polls in  the Morena district of Madhya Pradesh.

Narendra, an officer of the Indian Police Service, was killed on March 7 last year while trying to stop a tractor carrying illegally quarried stones at Banmore in Morena. He was on probation as a Sub-Divisional Police Officer and was just 30.

“This election is people’s fight against mining mafias in and around Morena. Narendra Kumar lost his life fighting against the mafia. It’s now our turn to speak up against the political mentors of the mafia,” Ramprakash, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) candidate in Morena, said. “I am sure that people of not only Morena, but also entire Chambal will do so by voting against both the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress on Monday.”

Morena, Bhind and Sheopur districts of Madhya Pradesh are all parts of Chambal, an impoverished and underdeveloped region, which was notorious for bandits till a few years ago.

The ravines and jungles of Chambal and the gangs of dacoits reigning over its inhospitable terrain inspired many films of Bollywood – “Sholay”, “Bandit Queen” or even the recent “Paan Singh Tomar”, which is based on the real life story of an athlete, who was born in Bhind and turned into a “Baghi” (rebel, as the outlawed dacoits were called in the region) after retiring from the Indian Army.

But “Baghis” have long been consigned to history, as hundreds of them have been eliminated by police in encounters over the past decades and a large number of the others have surrendered.

Now, they have been replaced by a new menace: The mining mafia, who are out to rob Chambal of its sand and stone, both in high demand in nearby Gwalior and other cities in Madhya Pradesh.

“They are indeed running a reign of terror in Chambal. If a poor vegetable vendor comes in the way of the tractor-trolleys illegally transporting sand and stone, the gun-toting goons would not even think twice about opening fire at him,” said Ramprakash.

Congress candidate in Morena, Dinesh Gurjar, alleged that the mining mafia were in cahoots with the local leaders of the ruling BJP. “People of Morena know that mining mafia and their gunmen have become reckless because they get the tacit support of the party in power.”

An armed mob ransacked the Sarai Chola police station in Morena in December 2012 and held two officers hostage for hours after the cops seized some tractor-trolleys illegally transporting sand.