Jairam Ramesh visits villages near Saranda forest

Chaibasa (Jharkhand), Dec 2 (PTI) Union Minister Jairam Ramesh today visited Chhotanagra village in West Singhbhum district and said roads would be laid out in villages situated near the Saranda forest and assured development of the areas within two years. Addressing a public meeting at Chhotanagra village, situated in the middle of the forest, the Union Rural Development minister said a length of 140 km road at separate places would be laid out and development would be seen on ground in the next two years. The roads would connect villages with blocks in areas like Manoharpur and Kiriburu which are situated near the forest. Ramesh, who had said during his last visit to Jharkhand that development was one of the methods to deal with the Maoist menace, distributed cycles among the villagers after the meeting. In July/August, the security forces had carried out a massive anti-naxal operation in the Saranda forest and rooted out the banned CPI (Maoist’s) "Eastern Regional Bureau Headquarters" situated in the 950 sq km Saranda forest. PTI COR PVR RG