200km from Gadchiroli, police post built in a day gives fin boost to region

NAGPUR: The Patagudam Armed Outpost (AOP) in Sironcha taluka near Chhattisgarh border, which hosted home minister Anil Deshmukh and his wife on Diwali, was built by 800 cops in a single day on February 29, 2016. Located some 200km from district headquarters Gadchiroli, this police post is considered the remotest in the state, and is located in the highly sensitive Maoist bastion.
The then district collector Ranjit Kumar and SP Sandip Patil (now DIG, Naxal range) were present at the construction site on that day.The place was cleared by felling trees, makeshift defence walls were erected with sandbags, morchas erected for round-the-clock security, electricity lines were drawn and water connections were made.
“It was not only a police post but also a ‘development’ post and so even the district collector was present,” said Patil, who returned to the post last week as DIG, accompanying the state home minister. The visit has highlighted the significance of the place as a key strategic point from both security and economic point of view.
“Due to security reasons, the post had to be erected within a day, with makeshift boundaries and tents inside, which was later made into permanent barracks,” he said.
Following a suggestion by senior security adviser of ministry of home affairs (MHA) K Vijaykumar, the post was set up after Maoists torched the Public Works Department (PWD) camp near Bhopalpatnam twice within six months. The PWD camp had been erected to oversee the works on the bridge being built on the Pranhita river.
The bridge connects three states, Telangana, Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh, giving impetus to economic activities in the otherwise ill-developed economy of the region. The bridge helped reduce the distance between Telangana and Chhattisgarh’s Jagdalpur by 800km and opened up the market of Bastar and also Sironcha in Gadchiroli.
DIG Patil recalled his stint as SP, Gadchiroli, when he had to undertake an operation of three nights and two days to conduct an operation in the Patagudam-Bhopalpatnam stretch after Maoist arson damaged the PWD camp. “We had conducted a survey at Patagudam and Bhopalpatnam to ascertain whether a police post could be opened here. Later, we were accompanied by MHA senior adviser K Vijaykumar, who too suggested a police post be opened here,” said Patil, who supervised the construction of the Patagudam AOP. “During the survey and operation, I was spending day and night in the forest and bathing in the river,” he recalled.