When the President Pranab Mukherjee will unfurl the flag in New Delhi on the Republic Day, Union Rural Development Minister Jai Ram Ramesh may do so inside the Saranda forest in Jharkhand’s West Singhbhum district on January 26.

This is for the first time,a Minister of the Union Government will take salute under the tri colour inside Saranda,Asia’s largest Sal forest,hitherto a den of the CPI(Maoist).

Oflate,the security forces had set up their base at Saranda,after searching and dominating its forest during the past almost two years.Even Ramesh had visited this forest a number of times and introduced a series of development programmes there.

Ramesh had shown genuine keenness to bring about development in other Maoist infested areas such as Saryu in Latehar district where he had visited a couple of times.This had earned him accolades both within the Congress party and outside.

After the President’s Rule was clamped,Ramesh is learnt to have played a key role in the affairs of the state.This became evident after the Centre appointed two Advisors to Governor Syed Ahmad,Madhukar Gupta and Vijay Kumar met Ramesh in New Delhi on Monday.

Now,at the behest of Ramesh,the Unique Identification Authority of India’s Director General Ram Sevak Sharma,who belongs to the Jharkhand cadre,is likely to be appointed as chief secretary of Jharkhand.Sharma is upright and has vast administrative experience who can set the state on fast –track of development after chief secretary SK Choudhary retires on January 31.

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