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Opinion National Interest PoV 50-Word Edit

ThePrint On Camera Videos In Pictures

Society & Culture Around Town Book Excerpts Vigyapanti The Dating Story

More Judiciary Education YourTurn Work With Us Campus Voice

How Dantewada Collector OP Choudhary pushed education in the Naxal-dominated district

Three factors—political buy-in, collector’s office as a listening post, and non-interference in anti-insurgency operations—ensured the Dantewada operation worked.

On this civil services day, 21 April 2026, I recall an initiative that was taken thirteen years ago, interventions in education in Dantewada, a Left-Wing Extremist district. It got the Collector of Dantewada the PMs Excellence Awards.

Sanjay Kothari, then Secretary of the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances DARPG —the department responsible for the Civil Services Awards felt that successful examples should be documented and used as case studies for the training  officer trainees and mid-career professionals in the IAS and State civil services. The case study was to be a collaborative venture involving an academic, a practitioner and the protagonist (winner of the Civil Services Award).   Thus, your columnist was  teamed up with academic Manisha Priyam and the Dantewada Collector, OP Choudhary of the 2005 batch to prepare a case study—Against All Odds.

Three years earlier, in June of 2010, I was posted as the Mission Director of the National Horticulture and Micro Irrigation Mission—NHM & NMMI—in the Agriculture Ministry at New Delhi. I was tasked with the mandate of promoting high value agriculture—fruits, flowers, honey, nuts—with a special focus on tomatoes, onions and potatoes, the three crops which always defied the demand-supply matrix keeping your columnist, and everyone else in Krishi Bhawan on a permanent tenterhook.

Then Planning Commission members, Saumitra Chaudhary and Abhijit Sen—both distinguished economists in their own right—were convinced that NHM should carefully examine the district agriculture plans of the Left-Wing Extremist (LWE) districts and focus more on cash crops and high value agriculture (HVA) to improve their economic condition. The Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs) were identified as the key growth drivers—as agriculture was one of the most important sources of livelihood. My Lalgarh experience came in handy. I suggested that the special forces establish their camps within or in close proximity to the KVK premises. This gave confidence to the extension officers to stay on the campus, and to the farmers to attend extension programmes without fear. For the security forces, the buildings were certainly more secure than staying in tents in the open. Among those who acted on this suggestion was the Collector and District Magistrate of Dantewada, OP Choudhary of the 2005 batch.

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