Jairam Ramesh inspects a well built by the Lohardaga district administration at Hirhi on Sunday. Telegraph picture

Lohardaga, Aug. 12: Union rural development minister Jairam Ramesh today invoked democracy among villagers in Lohardaga, saying no one ought to have picked up guns in response to what he admitted was a state “failure” in ensuring development in the rebel heartland.

Taking on Naxalism, he told villagers the rebels exploited the impoverished to fill their ranks and urged them to help the state government and the Centre to right the wrongs in over six decades since Independence.

“This (state) failure does not mean that one should pick up guns. Instead, he or she should have democratically participated in solving the problem,” Ramesh told residents of Naxalite-hit Hirhi village, about 70km from Ranchi.

The Union minister, who has passionately pursued the development agenda to combat Maoists in Saranda, followed up on his visit to Khunti yesterday with a tour of Lohardaga.

The outspoken minister, who is never shy of his stand on Naxalism and development, reiterated that the Centre was open for dialogue with the Maoists. Terming the Maoist dominance as “jungle sarkar”, Ramesh said his government would not be afraid of their guns and threats, but continue action against them.

He pointed out that in the states of Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Bihar and Odisha, there were two sets of government — that of the state and “jungle sarkar”.

“Jungle sarkar goli aur dhamki se shaasan karna chahti hai. Lekin is goli ka jawab hum boli aur vikas se dena chahte hai (The Maoist regime wants to rule with bullets and threats. We want to respond with dialogue and development),” he said.

Focusing his address on Naxalism and development, the minister argued that the rebels would only exploit the poverty of villagers but do nothing to solve it. He told villagers that the sooner they noted the point, the better.

Ramesh, who earlier visited the district Congress office and interacted with local politicians including Rajya Sabha MP Dhiraj Prasad Sahu, did not spare political parties either.

Pulling them up for failing to connect with the youths and ensure their democratic participation, he told the politicians to recruit youths in their parties so that they are not attracted towards jungle sarkar.

“Join politics. Contest elections. Become mukhiyas, ward members, zilla parishad members and contribute towards alleviating rural poverty,” Ramesh told local youths.

Accompanied by Sahu, principal secretary of rural works department S.K. Satpathy and Lohardaga DC Ratan Kumar, Ramesh also went around seeing trees grown by Hirhi women in 75 acres of barren land.

The women told him that the economic status in their households had improved after they formed self-help groups and took to horticulture, dairies and cultivation of vegetables.

Ramesh also visited Semerdih village of Kisko block and interacted with residents.

Earlier, the minister chaired a meeting attended by the DC and other officials at the circuit house in Lohardaga and reviewed projects taken up under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), Pradhan Mantri Gramin Sadak Yojana and Integrated Act Plan.

He appeared satisfied with the implementation of various schemes by the district administration, but asked the DC to upload details of MGNREGS wells that have been built on the government website.

The minister was understandably dismayed when Suraj Agarwal, a local Ajsu party leader, pointed out that in Onegarha village of Pesrar block, the district administration had built a bridge in a paddy field, completely failing to align the structure in tune with a nearby rivulet.

Ramesh ordered the DC to submit before the government a list of bridges, if any, that were similarly built in a faulty manner in the district.