Naxal areas look at innovation to tackle backwardness

Innovation to meet local aspirations is the new buzz to check influence of Naxalities in 60 districts under the Central government’s Integrated Action Plan (IAP) for Left Wing Extremism districts.

Updated on: Jun 22, 2011, 21:12:08 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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Innovation to meet local aspirations is the new buzz to check influence of Naxalities in 60 districts under the Central government's Integrated Action Plan (IAP) for Left Wing Extremism districts.

If Dantewada district has come up with the concept of two-wheeler ambulances to take ill to the nearest road, Ghadchiroli has provided mobile ambulances for minor operations on the way to a nearby hospital.

Bihar has come up with a unique innovation of generating power rice husk and Kanker in Chhattisgarh has provided solar electricity systems to the villagers without regular power connection.

These are some of the 69,000 works carried out under IAP, in which the Central government has provided Rs 25 crore in the last financial year and will be giving Rs 30 crore in the current financial year to each of the 60 worst naxal affected districts in India.

The magistrates of these districts provided latest status report on the works undertaken at a video-conferencing with plan panel’s member secretary Sudha Pillai on Wednesday. In six months of the scheme implementation the expenditure of over 47 % of Rs 1,500 crore released by the plan panel.

While most of the money has been spent on construction of roads, schools, irrigation projects, the district magistrates had utilized some money to meet specific needs of the districts, which are not covered under other central government schemes.

"We have sanctioned two wheeler ambulances for villagers where four wheelers cannot reach. People used to transport patients on carts till the main road," said district magistrate of Dantewada. In another naxal affected district of Chhattisgarh, Bijapur, the money has been utilized to provide employment to local youth by starting Jan Sawidha Express, a scheme, where money to take a bank loan has been provided from IAP.

Solar energy seems to be a universal solution adopted across 60 naxal states with the plan panel now deciding to provide up to 90 % subsidy for providing solar lanterns to villagers.

Now, the government is looking at improving mobile connectivity in the naxal affected districts.

"We have spoken to the Department of Telecom to ask private operators to set up mobile telephone towers in police stations and security establishments," Pillai said. A decision to this effect is expected soon.

Apart from it, the Central government had also relaxed norms for carrying out developmental works in these 60 districts. It includes allowing diversion of up to five hectares of forestland without approval, allowing construction of bridges up to 75 meters under Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana, instead of 50 meters in other districts and providing subsidy of upto Rs 48,000 for construction of homes for poor under Indira Vikas Yojana.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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