Ranchi: Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh today said villages around Saranda forests require a lot of work, hinting that former Union Minister Jairam Ramesh's initiatives had been inadequate.
"Much (work) has to be done. Problems are there. Roads are not good," Singh responded at a press conference to a query related to Saranda Action Plan initiated by Ramesh.
Singh, who visited Thalkobad in Saranda of West Singhbhum district today, said jawans offered him ride on a motorcycle as roads were bad.
"I learnt how to ride when I was a youth. Today I rode a motorcycle (while visiting the area)," Singh said.
Ramesh, a former rural development minister, had initiated SAP and had claimed the forest was cleared of Maoists through developmental works under the plan.
Ramesh had gone on record saying Left Wing Extremism could be dealt with security measures and developmental projects in Naxal-affected districts in Jharkhand.
Singh, however, sidestepped queries about Ramesh's SAP initiatives taken in the Saranda forest during the UPA-II regime, but said the Narendra Modi government would face the Maoist challenge in a "balanced way" for an early solution.
The Union Home Minister today reviewed the efforts being taken by the state government to root out Naxalism with Chief Minister Hemant Soren being present there.
Jharkhand Chief Secretary Sudhir Prasad, Director General of Police Rajeev Kumar, Home Secretary N N Pandey and several senior police officers also attended the meeting held at the Raj Bhavan here.
