Development initiatives Taken to Tackle the Naxal Issue in Simdega, Jharkhand.

Praveen Kumar ToppoD.C [email protected]

Praveen Kumar ToppoD.C [email protected]

Simdega is one of the 82 Districts which comes under Integrated Action Plan (IAP) .

The District Shares border with Chhattisgarh and Orissa making it as one of the Safe transit

Zone For the Extremists to escape from the Forces. Also adding to it two of our Blocks comes under Saranda Forest.

The District is Severely Hit by LWE Activities , with its footprint in all the 10 blocks of the district.

According to different Sources there are more than Seven(7) different splinter groups of LWE’s active in the District.

The Major being CPI(Maoist) ,People Liberation front of India(PLFI) , Pahari Cheeta,

Jharkhand liberation tiger(JLT) ,TPC .

Most of these So Called naxalite outfits are nothing more than extortionist shops whose main aim is to make money in the form of “Levy” on every type of developmental activities being carried in the district.

34% of the land in the district is covered with forests making it vulnerable and safe zone for the Maoists .

There is no industry/Factory in the District, the majority of population depends upon Forest/Agriculture and small Business for their livelihood.

Other major issues being Connectivity as lack of proper Road or lack of Public Transport system is greatly adding to our woes.

So , What and How are we dealing with it.

We have started with some of novel and innovative ways to approach developmental work and to deal with the issues.

Lets have a Glimpse of them.

“Integrated Farming” with MGNREGA as the major component along with various other departments

The Objective is to provide Sustainable livelihood and enhance the Financial Sources for Income generation.

Utilize the convergence policies of the government in an innovative way.

Proper land usage and land development.

District Agriculture

Animal Husbandry

NABARDCo-operative Dept.

One site For Integrated Farming per block taken Up as pilot .

Total 9 Integrated Farming sites currently running across 9 blocks.

These Integrated Farming sites will serve as a model as our future plan is to replicate this model across all the 94 panchayats of Simdega District.

Motivate the villagers for agro & Specially Vegetable Farming. Promoting the plantation and consumption of Green Vegetable and also to provide a mean to earn money by selling them in local market .so as to lower the Cost of green vegetables in the district and include it in the food basket of the people.

To Become as a leading District Providing Poultry and other Meat to the market.

Become A self Sustained District in terms of Green Vegetable and Milk.

To provide An Ultra Small Branches of Banks at the Panchayats.

The Common Service Centre ( Pragya Kendra) will work as the Extension centre For the banks at the Panchayat.

The CSC(Common Service Centre ) would double up as the Village level Entrepreneurs (VLE’s)

The Payments of MGNREGA and other Social Assistance programs can now be done directly from the Panchayats.

In the First Step we Ensured that Adequate infrastructure is Present at the panchayats.

We Provided the Panchayats with :

V-SAT – For internet Connectivity in the Panchayat .The Internet Network being the major hindrance Provision of V-SAT’s helped us to overcome it.(Simdega would be the First District in Jharkhand & probably India to have Internet Connectivity in all its panchayats(94).

It is starting to help us in various E-Governance initiatives.

Initiaives in

Education

“Mera School Mera Kendra’

An initiative to nurture dreams…………  Objectives: “Mera School Mera Kendra” aims at bridging the gap

between students and professional world and expertise. Mission: “Mera School Mera Kendra” program will basically help us as:

A platform where students will be in direct interaction with District officials, Doctors Engineers and Different professionals from diverge background.

This will help in inculcating and facilitating dreams and aspiration in students of the District (pre- Dominantly tribal District) who are generally unaware of the world and competition outside.

It will help in providing professional knowledge and will also allow government officials in fulfilling a part of their social responsibility with a satisfaction factor.

The key Strategies:- Every Govt. officers/Doctors/Engineers of the

District Shall Adopt a School as his Kendra (Centre) and spend atleast 1 hour/week with the students

The Other Professionals like Musician / Sports Person/politicians/Respected Social Workers would also be encouraged to adopt an school.

Now these Volunteers would :-

Act as a bridge to strengthen education system by exploring alternative ways of delivering information and guidance to reach the most deprived of students.

To be a passive monitor and look after the school and its activities.

This would be complemented by a set of supportive actions such as building the capacity of students and teachers; triggering district-wide social mobilization processes to enrich the education system.

Identify critical gaps in education Process and ways to Solve them.

Create a network for voluntary co-operation in local area so as to promote overall growth of Students and feeling of community ownership towards the school.

Functioning:Key People involved :-

District officials. Block level officers. Govt. Doctors, Engineers, Nurses and other

professionals/MLA’s/MP’s. Socially motivated Civilians of the local area. Staffs of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan , namely

BEO, Cluster Resource Person, BPO’s etc. Other resource person’s from District such as

Musicians, Sportspersons , Businessmen etc.  

An program “Padho Simdega” is going to be started in collaboration with “PRATHAM” in two of our most backward and LWE hit blocks of Bano & Jaldega.

In two of the most interior Tribal School “Smart Classes with Computers , projectors and Smart Science lab & Equipments have been provided with collaboration with ‘IL& FS”

Education Services “

All our dreams can come true – if we have the courage to pursue them

Thank you…