Members of an NGO travel in a village under Bounsi block in Banka. Picture by Amit Kumar

Govind Murmu, a resident of Bagdashwa in Banka, has been suffering from high fever for a couple of weeks but has not been able to visit a hospital because his village has no permanent roads. To seek healthcare, the 31-year-old would have to travel 25km over bumpy roads to reach the nearest primary health centre at Belhar.

Murmu is not lonely in his suffering though. Residents of more than 300 villages in the Naxalite-hit areas of Banka suffer everyday because of lack of proper road connectivity. Most of them depend on kuttcha (temporary) pathways to connect with the world outside.

Explaining the reason for the lack of road connectivity to villages in Belhar, Chandan, Kataria and Bounsi blocks in Banka, social activist Dhruv Thakur told The Telegraph: “Most of these hamlets are located in inaccessible terrain. The approach pathways to these places pass through dense forests or uneven topography.”

Thakur said residents of these villages — cut off from the world at large — do not have basic amenities like healthcare or schools. “Many of them have shifted their loyalty and support to the Naxalites instead of the government,” he said.

Sources said lack of road was a major problem for security forces in their operation against the rebels.

A senior CRPF officer told The Telegraph: “Poor road connectivity is responsible for the failure of anti-Maoist operations in the area. On May 9, a large number of rebels had gathered at Bagdashwa forest. But a joint team of Banka police and CRPF failed to capture any of them. We were late in reaching the spot because of unavailability of roads.”

“We were late because we had to walk over 8km on kuttcha roads to reach Matiyakur,” he added.

In 2009, a detailed report of the poor rural infrastructure in Banka was sent to the state government by the district administration. The report was forwarded to the Centre seeking special package.

Independent MP from Banka Putul Kumari raised the matter in Parliament twice. She even requested the Prime Minister and the Union home minister through letters for a special package. But nothing has happened so far.

The district administration is, however, hopeful that things will improve in the not-too-distant future. District magistrate Adesh Titarmare claimed that efforts were on to connect distant villages through roads and there would be better implementation of government welfare schemes in rural areas.

Bhagalpur range inspector-general of police A.K. Ambedkar said: “Recently, Banka was included in security-related expenditure scheme of the Union government. We plan to start community policing at the villages soon. Hopefully, the villagers will benefit from the schemes.”