.jpg "When Pranabda played dentist, knocked off customs' teeth")
Jairam Ramesh on the Saranda
Development Plan
A Governance Now
Initiative in Rural Reporting
and Social Accountability
CALLING POLICY WONKS AND GRASSROOTS WORKERS
The prime minister has repeatedly said that Naxalism is a bigger threat to India than external terrorism. That's perhaps why our home minister wanted to hunt them down not very long ago and governments have seldom come up with a non-gun solution. With the Saranda Development Plan rural development minister Jairam Ramesh is trying to. But, as of now, it is just that: Jairam's plan. The CRPF is on board but the combined power of all the key ministries of the central government is yet to be felt. The Jharkhand government has assured him support and is even delivering in fits and starts. But the Saranda Development Plan needs to be escalated to the level of a national governance mission. But before that, the debate needs to be joined. Has this Plan got what it takes to win the trust of the tribals? Is this the best way to bring development and peace to a recently "liberated" zone? Does this have the potential to become a "model" for a lasting solution to the problem?
Come, join the debate.
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The union government and the state of Jharkhand have launched a “development offensive” in Saranda forests after “liberating” it from long years of Maoist control. They have announced the Saranda Action Plan (since renamed Saranda Development Plan) to quickly take the area from the complete absence of governance to a semblance of its presence in the near term and re-establishing the state in the long term. Governance Now has stationed Sarthak Ray in the tough terrain of Saranda to observe and record the progress (or the lack) of this ambitious plan to regain the trust of the tribals.
Any plan to remove the trust deficit with our tribals is welcome but this is particularly so because it is the first serious plan where the gun has a secondary role in the state’s scheme of things. Will it work? Will it become the model for killing Naxalism in the rest of the country that the centre hopes it will be? This is one experiment in governance that the country needs to succeed in.
This ongoing series of reports started with the May 16-31 issue of Governance Now.
CALLING POLICY WONKS AND GRASSROOTS WORKERS
The prime minister has repeatedly said that Naxalism is a bigger threat to India than external terrorism. That's perhaps why our home minister wanted to hunt them down not very long ago and governments have seldom come up with a non-gun solution. With the Saranda Development Plan rural development minister Jairam Ramesh is trying to. But, as of now, it is just that: Jairam's plan. The CRPF is on board but the combined power of all the key ministries of the central government is yet to be felt. The Jharkhand government has assured him support and is even delivering in fits and starts. But the Saranda Development Plan needs to be escalated to the level of a national governance mission. But before that, the debate needs to be joined. Has this Plan got what it takes to win the trust of the tribals? Is this the best way to bring development and peace to a recently "liberated" zone? Does this have the potential to become a "model" for a lasting solution to the problem?
Come, join the debate.
Submit Comment Submit Article
Read Comment(0) Read Article(1)
Top Story
No lingering presence of Maoists in Saranda division but state needs more forces in Saranda to entirely secure the region, says Jharkhand operations top cop
Burnt road construction machinery at Ushariya, where Maoists attacked on November 26. The construction work was part of the Saranda Development Plan
The Saranda Development Plan (SDP) was mounted after security successes against the Maoists in the monsoon of 2011. The state wanted to quickly consolidate its hold in the area and 13 new paramilitary camps of the central reserve police force (CRPF), the Indian Reserve Battalion (IRB) apart from the state police and Jharkhand Jaguars (trained in jungle patrolling) were proposed.
But one year on, only six such camps have come up at different locations in Saranda division of the forest.
So, after the launch of a new combing mission, Operation Anaconda 2, Governance Now caught up with inspector-general (operations) of the state police, SN Pradhan, to get a security perspective on the Saranda Development Plan.
One of the first things that Pradhan mentioned was the state police’s unease with the claim that ultra-Left rebels had been cleared out of the region. “Of course, there is no lingering presence of the Maoists in Saranda division. Their hold has dealt a debilitating blow since last year’s operations,” he said. “But we need more forces in Saranda to entirely secure the region. We haven’t been able to do so because a chunk of the state police is now engaged at the border with Bihar because of an ongoing operation.
“In a few days, we will be able to deploy some of them in Saranda. Besides, the set-up in Saranda needs more central police personnel. We have asked the Centre for that.”
On the incident in Ushariya, where Maoists torched machinery involved in road construction work under SDP on November 26, and the timing of the launch of Operation Anaconda-2 (on December 7-8), the senior officer said the launch had been planned for earlier. “We were to start on November 16. It might seem like this is on the heels of the Ushariya incident but we couldn’t launch it then because we didn’t have adequate forces, considering the major force commitments we had,” he said.
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The Debate is Joined
Saranda is not just about tribals and their rights.What about the tigers, elephants...more
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