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Journalism of Courage
In 27 villages of Jharkhand’s Buddha Pahad area, more than 55 per cent of residents don’t have access to safe drinking water, more than half are without electricity and 60 per cent don’t have access to toilets. These were the findings of a committee formed by the state government to survey the area that was once a Maoist bastion.
With a population of nearly 20,000 and an area spanning a radius of 60 km across Garhwa and Latehar districts, Buddha Pahad was freed from Maoist control only last year. The work of the security forces, which drew praise from the Centre, meant that government officials could finally visit the area.
With the idea of bringing development to the area, the government commissioned the Buddha Pahad Development Plan (BPDP). The report was prepared on the basis of surveys conducted at the village, family and individual levels.
The BPDP report consists of more than 1,000 pages, and includes the names of all 19,896 residents in the area’s three panchayats – Aksi and Orsa in Latehar, and Tehri in Garhwa.
The plan estimates an expenditure of Rs 250 crore. The blueprint lays down steps for socio economic development, including linking pregnant women and young children to Anganwadi centres, giving land pattas to the landless, constructing individual toilets, and other infrastructural development such as laying down more than 200 km of concrete roads and bridges.
According to the survey, 14 of the 27 villages did not have electricity; 3,000 out of 3,908 families cook using wood as fuel; 2,186 families did not have access to a clean drinking water source; 2,595 families live in kutcha houses; and 2,486 families do not have access to toilets despite Jharkhand having been declared a 100 per cent open defecation free state in 2019.
The BPDP report said that after assessing the development situation in the area, the ‘Aapki Yojana, Aapki Sarkar, Aapke Dwar’ programme was launched in Garhwa district in October last year at the Budha Pahad area. On January 27, 2023, Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren laid the foundation of Buddha Pahad Development Project, and a committee was formed under Amitabh Kaushal, then Planning and Development Secretary.
“A personal survey of 3,809 families living under the Buddha Pahar area – more than three-fourths belong to Schedule Tribes – was conducted, and the socio-economic and infrastructural needs were assessed. Presentations have been made across departments and the entire survey findings have been put on record so that the numbers are not fudged at a later stage. The work on it will begin soon,” a government official said.
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