CRPF battalion launched mobile kitchen for liberated villages in Saranda forest
The 197th Battalion of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) has launched vehicle-mounted well-equipped mechanized mobile kitchen for serving cooking food to fifty-six villages under Saranda forests that has recently been freed from the Maoists after decades..
Official source said that CRPF-led mobile kitchen costing around Rs 32 lakh was a part of civic action programme of the Centre to achieve the trust of the villagers. The mobile kitchen now working at Saranda forest areas would be the first of its kind in the country, source said.
Meanwhile, Union rural development minister Jairam Ramesh recently held a janata darbar in the Maoist affected Chotanagra panchayat in Manoharpur block of West Singhbhum district. Chief minister Arjun Munda with senior bureaucrats accompanied the Union minister.
In the Union minister’s janata darbar vlillages of the Naxalite-dominated areas highlighted irregularities in the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) during their three-hour interaction with the Union minister.
Later, Union minister told media that Centre wanted to re-establish the civil administration in the 56 liberated villages in Saranda forest areas and that could not be possible without the support of the state government.
Ramesh said Centre would develop all the 56 villages in the Saranda forest as model villages and replicate the same in other areas like Jangalmahal in West Singhbhum district and Abujhmad in Chhattisgarah.
Ramesh further said that Centre would spend Rs 277 crore for development work in Saranda that included construction of roads measuring 140 kilometres.
He said that Centre’s had planned to increase the number of Left Wing Extremists-affected districts from 60 to 75. Out of 15 new districts, three would be in Ranchi, Khunti and Giridih in Jharkhand. Presently, 14 districts of Jharkhand were declared as Naxalite affected districts.