Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh will visit latehar and Garhwa on Tuesday to lay the foundation stone for some roads and inaugurate an eye camp in latehar organised by Kashyap Eye hospital in association with the ministry. Jairam reached Ranchi on Monday.
Ramesh visits the two Naxal-hit districts when the Maoists are observing Martyr’s week in memory of the two leaders — Charu Mazumdar and Kanhai Charterjee. “The Union Minister will reach latehar at 9 am and inaugurate an eye camp involving patients drawn from four blocks — latehar, Manika, Garu and Barwadih of the district. He will also be inaugurating five newly constructed roads here and will go to Garhwa to attend other programmes over there,” said Palamau DC Manoj Kumar.
Kashyap Eye Hospital has been engaged by the Rural Development Ministry on public-private basis to conduct eye camp in latehar. A total of 1,000 people will be examined in the eye camp of which 200 will be selected for treatment at Ranchi. The school teachers of the area have already been trained to identify those who are suffering with vision related ailments and brought to the camp.
Similar camps had earlier been organised by the hospital in Manoharpur block of West Singhbhum district in the Saranda region soon after Saranda action plan was launched. Notably, the CPI (Maoist) rebels have threatened Ramesh against visiting the Red zone areas like Saranda and Saryu. In Garhwa also, Jairam is to lay foundation stone for several roads. “He will be reaching Garhwa at 10:30 am and lay foundation stone for ‘Domni Baraj’, Kedar Kundi road, Nagar Utari-Bishunpur road and will leave for Ranchi on 12:00 O’clock. He will be leaving for Delhi on the same day from Ranchi,” Garhwa DC Rajendra Pratap Sinha.
Jairam is also expected to take stock of the ground being prepared for Saryu Area Development Action plan - Rs450 crore projects approved by him on August 12 last year. The Saryu plan, which is twice the size of the ongoing Saranda Development Plan in West Singhbhum district, covers four blocks, 12 gram panchayats and 1200 families in 1500 square kilometers of area. The plan was launched to develop the region that was once considered to the headquarters of the Bihar-Jharkhand North Chhattisgarh Special Area Committee (BJNCSAC) of the CPI (Maoist).
Ramesh had declared earlier that the developmental projects will be carried out in Saryu on the lines of Saranda Action plan being carried out in Saranda forests of West Singhbhum. Confidence building measures among the villagers were launched soon after evacuating the remote areas from the Maoists with the help of security forces to motivate them against the rebels who were earlier been supported by the rebels for long.
The police are providing security wherever the developmental works are going on in the area and three CRPF camps in the interiors of latehar have already been established at Saryu, Oreya and Kone.