Bhubaneswar: Their night mission was to reach the 30 km-long Balipeta village near Narayanpatna of Koraput district through dug-up serpentine roads covered with felled trees. Though aim of the Maoist-made activities was to make all the roads leading to Balipeta inaccessible, they were there on a different mission in their mind: to ensure a smooth television coverage of what they call it a big event in their professional career, abducted MLA Jhina Hikaka`s release.
The television crew from almost all the leading local television channels started on Wednesday night from Laxmipur and the members had to reach their destination by next morning. But the hindrances were many. Neither they had any instrument to help clear the felled trees nor they were so skilled to confront those. The only ray of hope to move ahead was the head lights of their vehicles in which they were travelling through the dense forest.
The 20km-long Laxmipur-Narayanpatna road was so filled with huge felled trees that it forced them to think about a much clearer 100-km road Phulkana-Bandhugaon-Naryanpatna road. And they preferred to proceed with the latter option.
The teams had to clear the roads at nearly twenty places where they felt it difficult to move ahead. The next to impossible work seemed possible with light beams of the vehicles and Digital Satellite News Gathering (DSNG) vans falling on the roads and helping the brave hearts clear those.
The journey of the adventurous night came to an end as they reached Balipeta in the morning. Few were heard saying - Mission Balipeta accomplished.