Naveen Patnaik and Jairam Ramesh

Bhubaneswar, Aug. 16: Union rural development minister Jairam Ramesh has urged the Odisha government to adopt the Maharashtra model of transfer of power to tribal communities to contain Maoist activities.

Ramesh has requested the Odisha government to adopt the Maharashtra model for harvesting and trading in minor forest produce, especially bamboo, under community forest rights.

In a letter to Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik, Ramesh said the Maharashtra model of transfer of power for full control of transit passbook for bamboo from the state forest department to the gram sabha should be followed. This, he said, had yielded results in Mendha in Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra.

The transit passbook gives the gram sabha the exclusive right for cut, sale and trade of bamboo.

“There have been recent newspaper reports that the Maoists in Gadchiroli are unhappy with the revolution that has taken place in Mendha,” Ramesh said in his letter.

Urging Naveen to implement the same tactic in Odisha, Ramesh asked him to send a team of officers to Mendha to study the model. “Handover full control of the transit passbook for the bamboo to the gram sabha concerned where community forest rights have been recognised,” Ramesh said.

According to the Maharashtra government plan, local tribals under the ambit of various gram sabhas will be engaged in the cutting of the bamboo. A certain percentage of the profit will be diverted to the gram sabha vikash nidhi (a fund meant to spend for the development of the gram sabha). The gram sabhas spend about 50 per cent fund on forest management activities and the remaining 50 per cent on various projects and issues related to future generation.

After assuming charge as a cabinet minister, Ramesh has shifted his focus for the development of the Saranda forests on the Odisha-Jharkhand border and the Maoist-affected areas bordering Odisha and Chhattisgarh.

In another development, Odisha director general of police Prakash Mishra today met senior police officers of six Maoist affected districts of the state in Koraput to chalk a plan to contain the Maoist activities in south Odisha.