Delivering the inaugural edition of the Governance Lecture series, 'Saranda and the Audacity of Hope: An experiment in Grassroots Governance’, union minister for rural development Jairam Ramesh said that he is appreciative of the magazine’s interest and efforts in governance. “I am intrigued that somebody is taking interest in governance. That somebody has put in money and efforts and placed a young reporter, Sarthak Ray, who actually lived there. He was, of course, critical of us. And I am thankful to Sarthak for this because his criticism prompted us to work harder.”

Giving the audience a brief background of the Saranda Development Plan, Ramesh said, “In July 2011, Saranda forest area was liberated from 11 years of Maoist control. In August that year, the Indian flag was hoisted in the region after 11 years. It was a hard-fought operation for the CRPF. Security forces deserve credit for having cleared the area which is known to been highly malaria endemic. They went into the forest region when they were least expected. The CRPF moved into the jungles during monsoon which is not easy and least expected and cleared the area from the Maoist control.”

Read our reports from Saranda: Saranda Governance Laboratory

Elaborating on the need for the development offensive, the minister said, “It was after this achievement of the CRPF that I asked myself how development can consolidate the security force’s success. How to ensure the area doesn’t go into Maoist control again. How we can use this opportunity. This is when we started dialogue with the Jharkhand government. Saranda Development Plan covers 900 sq km, six pancahyats, one block and 35,000 people. There are about 7,000 families in Saranda and all of them are impoverished. They are all below BPL, if we can coin the term. This is a sad reflection on all of us. So this was the background of this plan. The idea was to consolidation on the success of CRPF, ensuring that the Maoists don’t return.”

Speaking on the relevance of Saranda, Ramesh said, “Saranda is not unique. There are such pockets elsewhere as well. A number of areas in the country are liberated by civilian control. Abujhmar is the recent chunk of 4,000 square kilometres to have been liberated. So relevance of Saranda goes beyond those 900 sq km. It is a concentrated development offensive. The base we started on is very low. The purpose is to provide governance to people who had never known it. To fulfil our constitutional obligations.”

Elaborating on larger issues that are relevant to all such areas Ramesh listed three: the mining issues, the forest rights issues and the absence of basic developmental activities.

Detailing on the mining issues, the minister said, “There is this argument that the areas that are liberated are the areas that are mineral rich. But, let us nor romanticise Maoists. Their movement is not ideologically-driven. Theirs is a levy-based movement instead. For every ton of iron ore that you remove, a portion of levy goes to Maoists. In Saranda, a large number of mining rights are given to private companies. We have a real issue here. We had to convince people that it was not a mining-oriented operation and that it is a development-oriented plan.”

“In all these liberated areas, the issue off mining is of paramount significance. Locals complaint that allowing mining the way it has continued so long is devastating for them. We have yet not fulfilled the R&R promises that we had made before acquiring these mines. Our propensity to acquire more land than we need is very much there. Our continued incapability has put our credibility to task.” 

The second issue, the minister said, is the forest rights. “In 2006, we brought out the historic Forest Rights Act. But there are serious lacunae in its implementation. We are not in the mode of recognising the community forest rights. The Indian Forest Act of 1927 gave unlimited powers to forest bureaucracy. Today, a large number of tribals in Jharkahand or Chhattisgarh are in jail on flimsy grounds. We have not been able to do much in this respect. The recent success we got in Gadchiroli is some booster though. The control of bamboo trade there was given to gram sabhas. We want to do that in Saranda also. But there is a stiff opposition from the forest administration.”

Thirdly, Ramesh said, is the absence of basic developmental activities. Like in Saranda, health system has completely collapsed. Most of these areas are highly malaria-endemic. One media photographer recently lost his life in Abujhmar. We have to place our grip on such activities in the liberated areas. Basic development activities have to begin.”

Commenting on the success of the initiative, Ramesh said, “The good thing is that people are now demanding things. They are complaining. However, the crucial to the plan is a presence of political activity in Saranda and other such liberated zones. There is a complete absence of political mobilisation to which youths are attracted rather than Maoists leaders. The development plan will not set the politics of the region right.” The minister praised West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee in this context for her party workers vigorously taking up the cause of the tribals in West Bengal. 

In the end, Ramesh once again thanked our reporter in Saranda Sarthak Ray for his valuable criticism and inputs which led him and the officials to rectify mistakes. He cited the example of Indira Awaas Yojana where people in Saranda were not receiving money. After Governance Now reports, Ramesh said he enquired and found out the mistake and rectified it.

On this occasion, Naimur Rahaman, COO, Affiliated Network for Social Accountability, South Asia Region (ANSA-SAR), funded by the World Bank Institute to promote, strenghten and sustain the concepts and pratices of social accountability, announced a partnership with Governance Now wherein the magazine's experiment in grassroots reporting in Saranda would be scaled up. As with 'Saranda Governance Laboratory', four reporters will spend siz months in a rural setting and monitor governance at the grassroots level.

Describing it as "exciting", Rahaman said, “The aim of this project would be social accountability through media oversight.”