Biswajeet Banerjee | The News Minute | July 21, 2014 | 11:22 AM IST
Dacoits in rugged terrain of Bundelkhand in north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh have asked the villagers to give them 35 buckets of water daily or face the bullet. The terse message has made people in 28 villages to obey the order of the dacoits of Balkhariya gang and they are supplying water everyday since Wednesday.
“A few bandits are still active in the ravines. They ask for water, food and shelter from the villages. We heard about this order from dacoits and has asked villagers not to supply water to these gang members,” Suresh Kumar Singh, a police officer said on telephone from Banda, 300 km south-west of Lucknow, the state capital of Uttar Pradesh.
Bagwat Prasad, of Akhil Bhartiya Samaj Sewa Sansthan (ABSSS), an NGO working with the villagers said that everyone knows about dacoits’ diktat. Villagers carry water to the hideouts of dacoits and sometimes they trek almost 4 km just to supply a bucket of water.
“Water itself is very scare in this region. Villagers can hardly meet their demand but now they have to supply water to dacoits,” Prasad said.
The Bundelkhand region sandwiched between Uttar Pradesh and neighbouring Madhya Pradesh is generally rain starved. The area is witnessing severe drought since 2007. Normal rainy days in Bundelkhand is 52 days as per records of metrological department of India but last six years its restricted to just 24 days.
The supply line is maintained with meticulous planning. The dacoits have divided 26 villages in a cluster of three and each cluster is asked to provide 35 buckets of water.
Prasad said that because of drought the dacoits are pushed into the interior of rugged region where water bodies are scarce. They are not coming out because of the fear of police. So they are using villagers as a conduit to supply water.
“Any request from Balkhariya gang members is an order. No one can dare to say no to him,” Prasad said. “Thus, the villagers are forced to carry water for the dacoits,” he added.
Balkhariya gang is run by Sudesh Kumar Patel, who carries a reward of Rs 2.5 lakh on his head. He is a dreaded name in the Bundelkhand region and came to limelight after he killed a village chief in 2002. He is also facing 50 criminal cases including charges of murder, loot and kidnapping. Patel heads a gang of 10 who use sophisticated weapons like carbines and other automatic weapons. He used over two dozen mobile sim cards to escape police dragnet and to be in touch with the people.
Deputy Inspector General Amitabh Yash said for operation of gang some field craft and tactics are mandatory. “Secrecy is the mantra of any gang. Their locations are hidden and the supply line is hidden too. If the supply line is exposed the gang can be finished any day. There are some gangs, which are very small, in operation in the ravines. I doubt there would be any diktat from dacoit to villagers,” he told this reporter on telephone.
The Bundelkhand region is famous as breeding ground for dacoits. It had produced dacoits like Nirbhaya gujjar,Malkhan Singh, Dadua and Phoolan Devi. Raja Yadav, founder of the Anand Dham Samiti, an organisation that has been working on water issues in the region for the last decade, says that unlike the dacoits of yore who picked up guns to protest the injustices of the feudal order or avenge personal wrongs, banditry is now a means of gaining influence.
Dr R.B. Singh, assistant professor of social work at the BR Ambedkar Institute of Social Sciences, explained why Bundelkhand is a rich breeding ground for dacoits. "A lack of entrepreneurial spirit, the love of an easy life, a feudalistic social order and the acceptance of corruption have contributed to taking to crime a viable option", he said in his research paper.