State has been directed to set up a separate development authority The Centre has asked the Jharkhand government to show urgency on both security and development matters in the Left-Wing-Extremism-affected saranda forest. The State has been directed to set up a separate development authority to carry forward its initiative to provide basic amenities to 7,000 tribal families in the forest, and demanded early allocation of land for setting up 24 more CRPF...

Perennially hungry Chotanagra panchayat, 120km from district headquarters Chaibasa, may be forgiven for rubbing its eyes today in disbelief at the sight of a piping hot lunch. Amid the flurry of goodies — from land to tube well repair kits to tricycles — distributed by Union minister Jairam Ramesh, chief minister Arjun Munda and his deputies, what starving villagers relished most were steamed rice, mashed vegetables and eggs, courtesy the Central...

Union rural development minister Jairam Ramesh admitted lapses of the past but spoke of a new beginning today in saranda while unveiling an action plan for the forest region that was under the shadow of Maoist terror for over a decade. Armed with goodies like bicycles and transistor radios for residents of Chotanagra panchayat, about 120km from district headquarters of Chaibasa, Ramesh made it clear that the implementation of the development...

Blackboard 2002: A for attack; B for bomb; C for cops… Blackboard 2012: A for apple; B for ball; C for cat… Jamshedpur, Nov. 20: More than 500 students in some 15 primary and middle schools in forest villages of a reclaimed saranda in West Singhbhum are looking forward to a paradigm shift in their ABCs of academic life, courtesy the CRPF. The central paramilitary force has taken up the daunting task of...

Jharkhand and the Centre today gave final shape to a plan that aims to improve the lives of 36,000 people living in saranda forest. At a high-level meeting in Union rural development minister Jairam Ramesh’s office, chief minister Arjun Munda discussed a time-bound strategy to implement the saranda Action Plan. Ramesh said by November 10, Jharkhand would start appointing rozgar sevaks (employment facilitators) for each of the 56 villages in the area....