After the top-cop of Jharkhand Police, now it was turn of the top bureaucrat of the State to venture into Saranda to set an example for others to emulate.
Chief Secretary in-charge Sajal Chakraverty on Saturday ventured into dense forests of Saranda in order to infuse confidence among bureaucrats and give impetus to development works needed put a lid on left-wing extremism in the area. Development works in Saranda were hitherto affected despite a keen interest of centre to link the once secluded area with other parts of the State by introducing centrally sponsored development programme under Saranda Action Plan (SAP).
“I want to see why so much of negativity is attached with Saranda. I will spend a night in Saranda (to know the reality),” said the acting CS about Saranda visit.The acting CS was airdropped in the region on Saturday morning amid heavy security and he was accompanied by Chaibasa Deputy Commissioner Aboobacker Siddique during his visit to the remote areas in Saranda.
On his maiden visit as the acting CS, Chakraverty came face to face with the problems of Saranda and instructed officials to pay attention to the problems affecting common man residing in the Saranda region. The area bordering the neighboring State of Odisha is said to be facing acute shortage of potable water and prevalence of water borne diseases. Other schemes that Chakraverty inspected were- old age pension scheme, Indira Awaas Yojna and status of Integrated Development Centre setup under SAP.
Ironically, the IDCentre setup in Manoharpur block at an estimated cost of Rs 6-crore is yet to take off to the expected level since it was inaugurated in 2013 by the then Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh.
Incidentally, SAP which is a brainchild of Ramesh, envisages all round development of the region by building as many as 10 IDCs, 13 roads and 21 camps for security forces to prevent left-wing extremism from taking roots again in the region.