Insurgency is the tyrannosaurus of our time. Just as fitting is the truth that our tyrannosaurus should turn extinct with the advent of progress and human development. The SENTINELS of North East have played a vital role in prosperity and natural development of the region infested with militancy.

Although militancy has scuttled overall development in the district, the work of development and change in part of South district of Tripura initiated by SENTINELS is a microcosmic example of how development of a region and its people can overcome the menace of insurgency. And thus makes the unthinkable into a possibility.

To begin with, South Tripura was like any other district in the state. Essentially rural with insurgency having devastated whatever that answered to the name of basic amenities and created a plethora of ills like lack of roads and electricity in villages, no medical facilities, poor scope for employment generation, empty school buildings and an endless list of maladies. The rapid development in past few years has yielded good results in checking insurgency. The region may not have become a transformed economic czar but certainly, the developments have manifested themselves in people's participation in mainstream activities and have given strong indications of likelihood of insurgency writing its own obituary very soon. They also reflect the untiring efforts of Assam Rifles who have, in a short span of time, addressed the basic issues of the people in a most convincing manner.

The companies of Assam Rifles are located in the harshest interiors where basic amenities like roads, electricity and communication had never been brought to the residents. Sensing the need for roads connecting villages in the interiors and building of bridges, Assam Rifles began pursuing such causes in an earnest manner with the civil administration. The efforts have borne fruits. Today, there is a road cutting across jungle linking Debipur - Barmatilla - Kurma - Amarpur and Debipur - Barmatilla - Chelagang. Border Road Organisation with necessary assistance has taken up work to black top the above said road. This 12 km road to day has enhanced connectivity of villages in interior.
The TRTC buses had stopped plying in the interiors due to insurgency. Today, the Udaipur-Kawamara-Chelagang road is a virtual beehive of traffic. The Assam Rifles not only secured roads for safe travel but also encouraged locals to ply their jeeps and trucks thus increasing the quantum of business transacted in rural areas as well as infusing in them the courage to feel safe. The reopening of bus service on the Tuinani-Garjee road is in pipeline.
Further persuading and providing security cover to the civil administration in brick - flat soling of roads and tracks leading to villages in interior, repair of wooden bridges on Kurma-Barmatilla road, Debipur-Kathalia road and Tuinani-Garjee road have ensured adequate maintenance of roads in the interior and inaccessible parts.
The issue of unemployment is a primary cause of insurgency. The rampant unemployment in the area caused the Assam Rifles to address this problem in an extensive manner. Steps have been initiated with regard to education of tribal youth, training and preparing them for recruitment and generating work through Military Civic Action projects.

The broiler farm in Adipur was constructed with the initiative of 23 Assam Rifles under its Military Civic Action programme and so was the Market Shed in Tuinani. The broiler farm has benefited over two hundred families who live there while the market shed helped organise the entrepreneurial abilities of the village youth under one roof.
The work undertaken to construct a four-room market stall at Debipur and a rubber plantation scheme at Chelagang prove that such development schemes have spanned extensive geographical distances and are beginning to ignite the spark of enterprise and economic activity. There have also been a few Assam Rifles recruitment rallies, in Amarpur and Udaipur in 2001 and again in Udaipur in 2002 that drew huge responses. Training capsules for prospective candidates were organised by 23 Assam Rifles in the most interior regions of Chelagang, Kawamara, Debipur and Tuinani before the rallies. There seems to be a sudden surge of hope and aspiration amongst the tribal youth with opportunities not only knocking regularly on the doors of their bamboo hovels but virtually wrenching the door open to greet them.
When the companies of Assam Rifles were initially inducted in the interior tribal areas, they found the attendance in schools abysmal, teachers cooling their heels at home (conveniently excusing themselves because of insurgency), pathetic state of buildings and so on. The issue was taken up both at official and unofficial levels. School buildings in Betchara, Debipur, Adipur, Khaklaibari, Chapiabari, Duksingbari and Krishnabhaktabari were renovated/constructed. Sports activities were encouraged by providing sports equipment to schools and attendance in defaulting schools were accorded priority. The battalion then undertook a creative endeavour of introducing school children from the rural parts to places like the sanctuary in Sipahijala and the capital, Agartala which in fact, was a first time experience for the majority of children.

The military civic action programmes and development programmes undertaken have touched numerous fields with extensive potential. Whether facilitating easy access of the less privileged towards goods by setting up a public distribution system at Kurma or rice mills at Betchara and Khuniyabari or help in establishing water lift schemes at Chelagang and Tuinani or aiding the laying of electricity line to light up far off Khumlongbari, the role of the Assam Rifles and the response of the people are certainly positive indicators to the future.


Breaking off from the conventional mould of development programmes, the Assam Rifles is about to begin the functioning of computer laboratory at Udaipur which is aimed particularly at the educated youth, equip them with the weaponry of technology to face the advancing times. The computer lab is, like the rehabilitation project initiated for surrendered militants, an exercise in foresight and vision to look beyond the morrow. Much has been written in newspapers about how the medical camps in inaccessible tribal areas have been big successes.
These small successes add up to that monumental success of Assam Rifles in the south district of Tripura, that is, of integrating people and their needs to the cause of development, to the cause of defeating insurgency and fostering peace. To the cause, that Assam Rifles is wedded to - of being the sentinel of the North East. There is still a long way to go before South district becomes everyone's idea of peace. But Assam Rifles has unwrapped for everyone the roadmap to tread the path and move forward.