Cong brass to spend night in Red-hit village

Ranchi: Top state Congress leaders will spend two days and one night at Kisko in Lohardaga district, 100 km west of Ranchi, having a strong Maoist presence.
State Congress chief Sukhdeo Bhagat, former Lohardaga MP and former Union minister Rameshwar Oraon and other senior leaders will visit villages under Kisko block — this is a part of the party’s ‘gaon-gaon-paon-paon’ campaign — on June 17 and 18 and interact with people.
They will spend the night at Anandpur village in the block, where Maoists had kidnapped and killed three members of a family of land-owners in March 2015.
“The village is among the worst-Maoist hit in the state. It is an attempt to know what kind of trauma the Maoists have put the villagers into. We will hold a meeting with the villagers and have dinner with them in the village,” Bhagat said.
The decision has surprised many. In 2014, when Congress was the alliance partner of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM)-led government, Bhagat never spent nights in a Maoist-hit village.
“The village has been chosen for night stay in the wake of the killing of Shahdeo family members,” state Congress spokesperson Lal Kishore Nath Shahdeo said.
A chaupal (meeting) will be held where villagers can interact with the leaders.
Located in central Lohardaga, Kisko does not have piped water, roads, regular electricity supply (some villages have no power lines) and irrigation system.
“The problems will be compiled with the names of the villagers. The list would be submitted to the chief minister,” Bhagat said. Congress thinks it is a way to pressurize the government into doing something significant for the villagers.
Congress top leaders spent Saturday night at Mandar on the outskirts of Ranchi and listened to the villagers’ grievances.