Peoples Movement Support Group

JEHANABAD: Armed activists of the banned CPI (Maoist) raided a work site of the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojna (PMGSY) near Barki Murhari village under Pali police station in the district on Sunday night. The activists set a number of road construction machinery including two JVCs and three tractor-trolleys on fire. The CPI(Maoist) activists claimed responsibility for the attack in a note left behind at the work site stating that the attack was carried out to protest the constructor's refusal to pay levy. According to Naresh Das, a labourer guarding the site, over scores of armed Maoists swooped down at the work site around 11.45 pm and overpowered all of them. The desperadoes forced them to leave the place and then torched the JVC tractors and other machinery one after the other, he said. Das added that after going on a rampage for about an hour, the Maoists raised slogans in favour of the CPI (Maoist) and then dispersed. The manager of the Patna-based M/s Mother India Construction Company Private Limited said that they were working on this 3-km stretch of rural link road under Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojna at an estimated cost of Rs 78 lakh, when the Maoists were demanding 10 percent of the total estimated cost by way of levy. “When we refused to pay, they finally attacked our work site putting us to a loss of about Rs 50 lakh,” he said. Meanwhile, the police have registered a case against three named and six unknown accused in this connection. However, no arrests have been made so far