Development work can curb Naxal problem: Jairam Ramesh

Berhampur: “There are 60 districts are Naxal affected in the country, out of which 15 districts from Odisha. The Naxal problem in Odisha is not worsened like Chhattisgarh. We are planning out to tackle the situation. From that, development work in the Naxal affected area is the need of hour, which can curb the Naxal menace in Odisha”, said Rural Development central minister Jairam Ramesh in a review meeting on Saturday at Berhampur RDC office, as the part of his Odisha visit.

He reviewed the central government funded development works by visiting different parts of Odisha. During the visit, he reached at Berhampur RDC office to review the development work of the districts under southern RDC on Saturday morning here.

He also reviewed the MGNREGA works and the development works in Naxal affected areas. He lauded a collector’s proposal of building playgrounds under the scheme of NREGS in the tribal area. He discussed about road connectivity, Indira Awas Yojana and other welfare projects of the tribal area. He told that there is the need of more Post Offices and Banks in rural areas for the smoothly transactions of NREGA wages.

“This year central government has sanctioned one hundred thousand crore rupees as the budget for Rural Development, from which Rs 6,000 crore has been sanctioned for Odisha. Every year centre allocates 25
crore extra for the upliftment of the tribal districts, but this year extended to 30 crore”, said Jairam Ramesh in the review meeting.

He advocated for the farmers to stop acquisition of the cultivable land, which yields 3 tier crop a year, and also suggested to computerize all the data to bring more transparency in MGNREGA work. He gave the instances of Andhra Pradesh, who get succeed in this field. He told about the road connectivity, broadband connection and to modernize the old system in the rural area.

Among others, RDC Laxmi Narayana Nayak, Panchayatiraj Secretary Aurobinda Padhy, Rural Development Secretary Ashok Tripathy, Jairam Ramesh’s Personal Secretary R Vineel Krishna, collector of Nayagada with the district collectors under southern division RDC were present over the review  meeting.