One of the ten single window centres for governance delivery in the remote reaches of Maoist-affected Saranda in Jharkhand, the integrated development centre (IDC) at Digha village will be up and functioning by February, the deputy commissioner of West Singhbhum, K Srinivasan has told Governance Now.

At Digha, construction is on at full swing on the 26,000 sq ft site.

The Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL), which mines from the rich iron-ore reserves of Saranda, is funding the setting up of the IDC under its corporate social responsibility programme. The initial estimate of expense for the project is pegged at Rs 6 crore. The one at the Digha will be the first IDC of the ten proposed to be set up under the Saranda Development Plan.

Both, the government and SAIL, had to face stinging criticism for missing two deadlines for the setting up of the IDC, one in March this year and the other in May. The West Singhbhum administration had admitted earlier in July that the work had not started owing to the difficult access to the region while SAIL claimed that Hindustan Prefab Limited (HPL), a PSU that was contracted to supply prefabricated structures to house the IDC, had failed to deliver on time. Besides, Maoist threats had discouraged contractors from taking up the work.

However, when Governance Now visited the site in last week, around 35 workers had been engaged at the site. "The unskilled labour, those engaged in digging, concrete mixing and other odd jobs are from Digha itself while the masons and the earthmover operators have been hired from Rourkela and other places," informed Gurpreet Singh, the site in-charge for the HPL-Tejaswini Constructions (a private firm which has landed the contract).

The IDC is strategically flanked by two paramilitary camps less than a kilometre away on each side. Infrastructure work under the Saranda Development Plan has been under constant threat from the left ultras who have not shied away from threatening locals not to participate in government-sponsored "anti-people plans". In fact, the Maoist burnt construction equipment belonging to a private contractor who had undertaken road work under SDP in Ushariya, some 33 kilometres along a forest road from Digha. However, the workers at Digha seem unaffected.

"Rozgar Yojana se jyaada mil raha hai, ek sau assi rupaiye, toh kaam kyon band karenge. Pet toh paalna hi hai dhamki ho chahe nahi ho," Emmanuel Topno, a 34-year-old Digha man working at the site told Governance Now. (We get better money than we do under the employment guarantee scheme, Rs 180. So, why should we stop work? We have to earn a living despite the threats.) Jablun Dhodrai, Digha's atirikt rozgar sevak, a field-level functionary (one of the the special provisions made in the Mahatma Gandhi national rural employment guarantee scheme under SDP) says that the villlagers have been keen to work on the project not just because of the wages but they also are keen to have the IDC functional at the earliest. However, Dhodrai told Governance Now that the break at around Christmas could stall work for quite a few days as most in the village are Christians.

The IDC, located around 30 kilometres from the block office, will be a one-stop-shop for governance where villagers can apply for and receive a host of services, from registration of birth and death to voter identification cards and BPL (below poverty line) cards. Srinivasan, in an earlier interaction with Governance Now, had informed that there are plans to set up PDS shops at the IDCs with the idea being to bring every conceivable government service to the doorstep of those living in villages deep inside the forest. Apart from service delivery, the IDC is the proposed site for training of village youth in various jobs like welding, electrical repair and tailoring. IL&FS Cluster Development Initiative Limited, an agency involved in training rural youth, has been given the charge of identifying suitable candidates for various training and them imparting the skills.

(Sarthak Ray who spent four months in Saranda is not stationed there anymore but keeps track of developments in the region.)