Review preview

On July 1, union rural development minister Jairam Ramesh was in Saranda for the third time in the last nine months. The minister had come to this sal-forest in Jharkhand’s West Singhbhum district to review the implementation of the Saranda Development Plan (SDP), a “development offensive” against the Maoists who had had held the forest for nearly a decade until they were forced out in a paramilitary operation last monsoon.  After announcing the Plan in October, Jairam had landed in Saranda, first in December  and then in January, to kick-off the Rs 264-crore initiative meant for six panchayats – Digha, Makranda, Lailor, Gangda, Chiria and Chottanagra – in Manoharpur block.  The aid would go into the implementation of many union sponsored welfare schemes (rural employment guarantee scheme, housing grants for the rural poor under Indira awaas yojna (IAS), subsidized food grains for the poor under the public distribution system, BPL benefits). It would also pay for a 130-kilometre road network in Saranda (to be built under, pradhan mantri gramin sadak yojna, PMGSY), ten integrated development centres (IDCs) or one-stop shops for governance delivery, an integrated watershed management programme and bicycles, transistors and solar lamps for 7,000 families in the 56 six villages of six panchayats.

Review Realtime

Six months later, he was here to see what had become of the Plan. Getting off a chopper in a freshly-tilled field that was the stand-in helipad for the day at Jaraikela, the minister walked to a crowd of villagers that had assembled by one of the bunds. Even though the village, split between Jharkhand and Odisha, did not figure in his itinerary, Jairam was generous with his time with the crowd as it asked for schools, roads and health centres. He instructed the senior administrative officers in his entourage to make a note of the demands. Bypassing protocol, he got on the pillion of a security personnel’s bike and rode to Digha, some 16 kilometres down a road that is more potholes than pitch. The minister had thus made a statement merely minutes after arriving – only a report from the grassroots would do. Taking a cue, the senior administrative and security officers in his entourage (which included Jharkhand’s development commissioner Debashish Gupta, principal secretary of water resources department of the state government S K Satapathy, Kolhan commissioner  Avinash Kumar, West Singhbhum deputy commissioner K Srinivasan, inspector-general (operations) of Jharkhand police S N Pradhan, director  general of central reserve police force  D K Pandey, SDP in-charge and subdivisional forest officer of Chaibasa-South S R Natesh, and the minister’s personal assistant, senior IAS officer, Vineel Krishna) made an unusual motorcade – a bikes-only motorcade!

A thirty-minute ride  on a bumpy, kaccha road and the young and the old of Digha were thronging the minister and his team with questions and demands, some made in Ho and some in Hindi. Jairam wove easy conversations with the locals as they shook hands with him. However, the most surreal detail of the welcome at Digha was a group of women dancing to the beats of a drum while mouthing a song extolling the virtues of a messiah (Jesus Christ, actually)!

The minister inaugurated two check dams on a stream at a fringe of the village. Speaking to the munda (traditional village head) and others, he inquired of the Plan’s implementation in the village. While the munda said that some of the work was beginning to show, some of the women said that the villagers’ now banked their hopes on its success. “We need electricity, however. Without it, how will we ever pump the water out?” said one of the locals, pointing at the check dam. Jairam noted then that villagers had seemed to be more confident this time round (he had visited Digha in January to lay the foundation stone for the first integrated development centre, IDC). “Look at their confidence now. A few months ago they were shy and aloof. We must be doing something right,” the minister would say to one of the officers later that evening.

The minister also visited the paramilitary camp at the village where he was briefed about the security situation in Saranda. The DG-CRPF assured him that while nine of the 23 camps proposed to be set up were already there, the rest would come up by October this year. On his way to the Jaraikela camp where the team would stop for lunch, the minister stopped by the site of the above-mentioned IDC which was supposed to have been set up by May after the work order had been released in March. Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL), the largest mining concern in Saranda, had promised to set up the IDC at a cost of Rs 5.43 crore under its corporate social responsibility programme. But issues cropped up after the tender was awarded to Hindustan Prefab and it was cancelled. As a result, the foundation stone laid by Jairam in January stood out like a sore thumb in the barren land on which the IDC should have by now have been standing. “Everyone’s afraid in the era of the CVC, CAG, CBI,” Jairam had noted wryly upon being asked to comment on the delay.

The next thing on the agenda was the inauguration of a small bridge in Domlai village in Lailor panchayat. Manoharpur MLA Gurucharan Naik had joined the ceremony as well. After the inauguration and a traditional welcome by the girls of Kasturba Gandhi Residential School, the minister addressed a gathering of around 500 people. He admitted to delays in the implementation of the Plan but asked the people to repose faith in the government and not “turn to guns”.  “Bandook ka saath mat dijiye, vikash ka dijiye (don’t side with ‘guns’. Support development instead),” he said, referring to the Maoists.  He said that development should have come nearly six decades earlier, soon after independence, but the government was starting late. “The Plan could be a fresh start for the people of Saranda,” he said. He stated that the issues that have cropped up in the implementation of SDP will be worked out soon and development will be taken up at a war-footing.

Defending the road network that has come under attack from activists who say that it is being built for the convenience of mining interests, Jairam pointed out that the roads were meant to connect most of Saranda to the rest of the world and were a necessity for the villagers. “Work on two of the eleven roads proposed has already started and the state government informs me that the tenders have been awarded for the rest and that the work will be complete by October 2013,” he told the gathering. He later unveiled the nine plaques that were to be laid at the foundation of these nine roads. Replying to a question on the accountability for the delay in implementing SDP, he said, “The Plan is a collaborative effort of the state and the union government. So, I will not single out any person or office or any organisation. We have to collectively share the blame. In fact, I blame myself for setting such tight deadlines.”

However, MLA Naik’s words were telling of where the accountability should actually lie. Naik, addressing the crowd at Domlai, had said, “Saranda Vikash karyakram ke aane se Saranda vasiyon ko bahut laabh pahunchega. Centre toh dene ke liye tayyar hai, hume apne lene ki khsamta ko badhana chahiye.” (The SDP could benefit the people of Saranda a lot. The Centre’s ready to give. We should improve our capability to utilise the central aid).

Jharkhand, despite the promise it possessed at the time it broke away from Bihar, has become an example of misgovernance in the twelve years since its creation. Nine governments in twelve years, and one chief minister behind bars for graft, have caused a near-total policy paralysis. Statecraft has been waylaid by coalition allies with little common interest.

Review Official

That evening, the minister and state government officials sat at the conference hall at the DC’s office in Chaibasa, the West Singhbhum headquarters. The review of the SDP began with the deputy commissioner K Srinivasan explaining the progress in each programme under the SDP. The DC stated that nearly 2,500 families in Saranda had been given the first instalment (of Rs 24,500) of the Indira Awaas Yojana grant while 268 had received the second instalment and had already built the houses. The target of reaching 6,000 families in the six panchayats was still far, the minister noted. Srinivasan said that the delay was because of a procedural glitch. The condition for determining beneficiaries (that he/she must be a BPL card holder) was becoming a hindrance as the previous BPL survey had listed only 2,500 families and the rest 3,500 were failing the standard of poverty measurement according to a state government pro-forma. Jairam, however, stated that the centre had released funds for 6,000 beneficiaries and the state had to figure out a way to negotiate the BPL listing in disbursing the grant to the beneficiaries. “I have written to the chief minister that the amount be disbursed after making the necessary modifications in the criteria for selection of beneficiaries. If needed, the ministry of rural development will issue a directive to the effect in consideration of the SDP goals,” he told the district officials, urging them to fast track the allocations. The district administration then assured the minister that the disbursal of the first instalment to all the beneficiaries will be completed within three months.

Jairam informed the officials that SAIL had agreed to give the money it had intended to spend on constructing the IDC at Digha to the state government. He said that the state government needed to find the right agency to set up the IDC. For good measure, he asked almost each official present if any agency of their department could take up the project – from police housing corporation to the forest department itself. However, it was later agreed that the project was to be completed by the DC’s office after awarding separate tenders for the setting up of the IDC in parts. The minister proposed one of the most creative solutions to the IDC problem suggesting that the state could approach the National Bamboo Mission for pre-fabricated structures.

The question of the delay in the distribution of the SDP goodies – the solar lamps, the transistors and bicycles – however, posed a pressing concern with the district officials contending that there was an acute shortage of manpower which had retarded the distribution. At the time of the meeting over a few hundred cycles lay in the Manoharpur block premises awaiting distribution since February this year. Some of them have been there since December last year. SAIL, which was supposed to purchase 6,000 bicycles at a cost of Rs 2.2 crore, had stated that it would give the money to the state government instead. The minister noted, with some satisfaction, that the distribution of the solar lamps had fared comparatively better with nearly 2,200 of them having been given to the people of Digha and Chottanagra panchayats. However, only 600 transistors had been given away by June 30.

“I am pleasantly surprised that we have had the most success with the integrated watershed management project though it had been intended as a medium-term project. In fact, it was a last minute addition in the SDP,” Jairam said, as the DC led him through slides of the powerpoint presentation.  The two check dams that the minister had inaugurated earlier that day were part of the Rs 60 crore programme to promote conservation-fed irrigation in Saranda over the next five years.

On the issue of the implementation of the Forest Rights Act in the six panchayats, Jairam expressed surprise that the number of samudayik (community) pattas outnumbered (at 2,165) individual pattas (at 905). In the last nine months, the block and forest department officials have managed to get applications for scheduled tribe certificate and resident certificate (both crucial to the recognition of the FRA) from five villages. “Block officials had visited six villages – Tirilposi, Nayagaon, Kudlibad, Kulaiburu, Hatanaburu and Hanjordiri – for getting the applications. However, Hanjordiri residents have refused to apply, another headache for the administration,” a block official told Governance Now.

Review aftermath

Jairam Ramesh met Jharkhand chief minister Arjun Munda at his residence in the state capital Ranchi on July 2. The union minister discussed the progress of the SDP with the CM. In an interaction with the media, the minister stated that Munda had assured him of full co-operation in the implementation of the development initiative. “The implementation of SDP has been slow but we are hopeful that most of our targets will be complete by the end of 2013,” he told the media.

On a question that Governance Now had asked earlier, regarding the allegations that the SDP was linked to mining interests of private companies, the minister said that the allegations were “mischievous” and intended to “misguide the people of Saranda”. “It is Maoist propaganda to destablise the Plan. It exposes the Maoist hypocrisy as well. They extort ‘levies’ from the mining companies in the area.

“I will reiterate the stand that I am against private mining in the area. During my tenure as the union minister of state for environment and forests, the only clearance I granted was to SAIL for its expansion in Chiria. In fact, I am ready to roll back the SDP the day there is evidence that private companies have been granted clearances to mine in Saranda,” he said. The nineteen MoUs signed in 2007 with private companies for mining in Saranda were signed in a politically unstable time in Jharkhand, he remarked. “It was a free-for-all period in the state,” he said, “In my opinion these agreements should be tackled politically rather than legally.”

Terming the progress of the SDP “a reasonable success” he said the ministry would consider a proposal to expand it to other areas of Saranda including the parts that are in Odisha. “The chief minister told me that a lot depends on the success of the SDP. He has assured me that the Jharkhand government will work with the union government for ensuring its success in the region.” On the Saranda Development Plan becoming a model “development offensive” in other Maoist-affected regions, the minister said that there are several plans being considered for the Maoist-affected districts in Jharkhand, Odisha and Chhattishgarh, but the state has only been able to start with Saranda because the security operations have been more or less “successful in regaining control of a Maoist stronghold here”.  “A Sarju Development Plan is being drafted at the moment, but it will not be an exclusively MoRD initiative.

Jairam admitted that the SDP alone cannot become a deterrent for the spread of left wing extremism in the region. “A four-pronged strategy could keep Maoists from regaining control. While security deployment and development of the tribals are the key parts of this strategy the need for culturing political leadership in the region – be that of any party, the Congress, the BJP, the JMM or the CPM – and for the delivery of justice for the historical wrongs and the present excesses against the tribals is just as important in the fight,” he said.

Our review

For the first time, there is hope in Saranda. We have in Jairam Ramesh a union minister who is ready to push with all his might for development in Saranda. The bike ride, while being the truth of convenient travel in the interiors of Saranda, is oddly symbolic of the government wanting to reach out to the prosaic bottom of the pyramid. The union government is willing to pull all stops to get to the people of Saranda their rightful due, in a conscientious manner. But the looming question is will Jharkhand be infected by the energy of a minister who does not mind getting dust on his white kurta doing rounds of a forest? Surprisingly, no one from the state government has ever come to Saranda since the announcement of the Saranda Development Plan. The executive is weakened by policy hindrances and court orders. Even when these hurdles are down, the lower-level government functionaries move at a glacial pace. You can feel the faint stirrings of a development plan. A few things have moved, many more have not. But then there is something to be said about the importance of being earnest.