Silchar, March 28: The 9 Parachute Field regiment under the army?s 57 Mountain division has won accolades for successfully combining its operational commitments with civic action programmes.
So much so that its commanding officer has endeared himself to the children of Jiribam town by distributing goodies ? and now he is widely known as the ?chocolate cream soldier?.
The regiment was deployed on counter-insurgency operations seven months ago in Manipur?s disturbed Jiribam subdivision and adjoining Cachar district?s border enclaves. Participatory interaction with cross-sections of the villagers in a hotbed of insurgency, while organising non-military activities such as medical camps, relief for orphans and provision of computers for a college have earned it plaudits.
Col. M.P.S. Mendonca, commanding officer of the 9 Para regiment, said on March 25 that the army was able to isolate the various rebel outfits by simply reaching out to the people at large.
Col. Mendonca said the situation in a large portion of Jiribam was inimical when his Agra-based unit was inducted there. He recalled how the people were seething in the aftermath of the rapes of two Meitei girls, Manorama and Sanjita, allegedly by men in uniform.
Col. Mendonca recalled that Jiribam had appeared to be a ?ghost town? at that time, with all shops closed and all traffic off the roads following intermittent bandhs, as the people registered their protests against the army. Not only was the zone under rebel control, the local people boycotted the armed forces totally, asking them through rallies to vacate Jiribam.
But the army did not give up, doling out medical relief and various utility articles to woo the alienated villagers.
Local people shed their hostility towards the armymen by slowly starting to exchange greetings and then mixing freely with the men in fatigues. During the past seven months, as many as 34 medical relief camps were organised by the army in and around Jiribam subdivision, which has a total population of about 50,000.
A total of 6,657 patients were treated by the army doctors and medicines worth Rs 1,17,600 distributed among them. The medical camps were attended by patients in large numbers even though the banned UNLF repeatedly asked the people to boycott such camps organised by the ?occupation forces?.