Ranchi, Oct. 12: Governor K. Sankaranarayanan refuses to blame Jharkhand police for their inability to curb Maoist violence in a state that is groping for a fitting response to the guerrillas’ murder of a special branch police inspector, but acknowledges the need to reassess its priorities towards development.

Jharkhand isn’t the only state where Naxalism is present, said the governor who is heading the administration of the state that is under extended President’s rule. “It is an acute problem,” he admits to The Telegraph in the course of an interview, and goes on to elaborate the different nature of problems in other states where he has served as governor.

“Arunachal had its own problems, Assam has the Bodo issue and the Ulfa.… Orissa and Bihar have Maoists,” he explains and then comes up with the clincher. “After a long period of Marxist rule, Naxalism is rising again in Bengal. So, Marxist rule is not the answer for all this.”

And as is if grasping the full import of his statement, Sankaranarayanan adds: “Any rule is not the answer.”

The state police, he claims, are a good force that is doing its best. Refusing to be drawn into a controversy over popular perceptions that enough hadn’t been done to rescue inspector Francis Indwar, his defence of the law and order machinery is, at best, routine.

“The police have their limitations. Under the circumstances they are doing their best. It is very easy to kidnap a person.”

His long-term answer to extremism was what the Centre and the Prime Minister have been harping on. “Development, development, development,” the governor declares, having fast-tracked the compensation package for inspector Indwar’s widow Sunita, granted a job as a high school teacher based on her MA degree and a cheque of over Rs 50 lakh.

“Jharkhand deserves a stable government with a national outlook. A government that can co-ordinate effectively with the Centre.” That’s the prescription from a governor, who is facing considerable flak from the Opposition BJP, that sees a Congress pre-election design in every project he implements, every grant he sanctions and every subsidy he announces for the people of a state that is reeling from the double impact of price rise and drought.

“When I landed here, I had an agenda in mind. I wanted to focus on the people, especially the downtrodden.” And so, the governor set his sights on small, yet significant, goals like streamlining PDS, old age pensions, land records.

“For the first time in Jharkhand, sugar is being distributed regularly through PDS,” a genuine success whatever the BJP may say as he managed to undo a historic anomaly wherein the state did not pick up sanctioned stocks for want of storage and distribution capabilities.

He has also set up fair price shops, distributed free rice for the poor during the festival month of Id and Dussehra, sanctioned jobs for qualified youth belonging to primitive tribes among others. Most of these measures were rotting in file notings, which Sankaranarayanan claims he has only implemented.

To drive home the message, he is now holding vikas melas in districts — he has already visited Hazaribagh, Naxalite-hit Palamau — to distribute everything from bicycles to students to forest pattas (or land allotment papers) with PDS licences and loans thrown in for good measure.

“Women told me they did not have enough to start PDS shops. So I sanctioned Rs 10,000 seed money and arranged for bank loans. I also started suvidha stores (fair price shops) to prevent hoarding during the time of price rise.”

By and large, these measures have been welcomed. After all, who wouldn’t say yes to decisions to speed up old pensions, diesel subsidy for farmers and a hike for parateachers.

The BJP isn’t though. The party has a point when it castigates the Centre for not holding elections in Jharkhand along with Maharashtra and dubs its excuse of citing the forthcoming National Games as an eyewash. It may well have a case when it questions the Centre’s wisdom of keeping the state Assembly in suspended animation, but to pile on to the governor for doing what is essentially his job, may not go down too well with the people, especially when the state is waiting for polls.

“How can they criticise me for doing my job. I know politics better than these people and if I wanted to be in politics I would go back to my state of Kerala,” countered Sankaranarayanan who proved his troubleshooting skills as UDF convener for 16 years.

May that’s why the governor has steered clear of contentious issues. Mining leases and mega investors threatening to pullout don’t worry him as he feels he doesn’t have a mandate to adjudicate and decide on industry vs land debates that are stalling most of the 50-odd MoUs signed when the state had propped up unstable coalitions.

“MoUs are not decisions. They are only understandings. I don’t think it’s a loss for the state if investors move out,” he declares while referring to ArcelorMittal chief L.N. Mittal’s recent pullout threat. “The only solution lies in meaningful discussion held in a positive atmosphere.”

Sankaranarayanan’s ongoing stint has at least brought in a sense of a clean-up, with the wheels of the administration beginning to turn again. At least the seat of the administration, Project Building, a legacy of a PSU now on the verge of a turnaround (Heavy Engineering Corporation), is busy for the right reasons.