Ranchi, Sept. 13: A sombre chief minister Arjun Munda was today forced to admit that Maoists in the state are taking advantage of the lack of basic infrastructure in the rural areas.

He also acknowledged that improving the socio-economic lot of the people alone could help the state tackle extremism.

The stark realisation was reinforced apparently by the chief minister?s visit yesterday to the site of the massacre by Maoists at Bhelwaghati on the Jharkhand-Bihar border in Giridih.

The visitors were forced to wade through two rivers and negotiate 16 kilometres of undulating, virtually unmotorable road to reach the village, where they had to face the ire of the villagers. Slogan-shouting villagers had even forced former chief minister Babulal Marandi and Munda to beat a hasty retreat.

A perturbed chief minister today called a review meeting at his residence and invited Marandi also to attend it. Nearly all the secretaries attended the meeting, which took stock of the ground situation in Giridih and Koderma and of Naxalite activities.

The brief visit to Bhelwaghati was Munda?s first visit to the site of a Maoist strike as chief minister. On all earlier occasions he had ignored the carnage and sent the director-general of police instead.

The first-hand experience, officials today conceded, had enabled Munda to realise for the first time the difficulties faced by the security forces as well. The police actually reached the site nearly 12 hours after the carnage was over, though the district headquarters is barely 58 km from the village.

A grim chief minister today pointed out that as many as 21 districts shared borders with neighbouring states. This too was making the task of Maoists easy, he said, as they escaped into neighbouring states after striking in Jharkhand.

The chief minister directed officials to chalk out a comprehensive package for the development of Koderma and Giridih, specially areas with difficult terrain and which are inaccessible by road.

The non-completion of two bridges over the rivers Sonvay and Loi annoyed the chief minister who ordered departmental proceedings against the executive engineer concerned. The bridges would have connected Bhelwaghati with Deori and Giridih and security forces could have reached the site faster.

Officials apprised the chief minister that several road projects were held up in the rural areas because the forest department had not issued the necessary clearance.

The chief secretary was directed to identify officials responsible for the delay and take suitable action against them.