Brief
About Latehar District
Latehar district has been created on 4th April 2001. Previously,
it was a subdivision of old Palamau district of Jharkhand State.
Latehar district is situated between 84deg. 31 min. East latitude
23 deg. 44.4 sec north latitude.
The geogrophical area of the district is 3651.59 square kilometers.
There are 7 (Seven) Development Blocks, namely Latehar, Chandwa,
Balumath, Manika, Barwadih, Garu and Mahuadar
History
Latehar was an integral part of Palamau; hence it is desirable
to take into consideration the historical account of Palamau as
a whole. The district of Palamau was constituted on 01 January
1928. Its headquarter Daltonganj was named after Colonel Dalton,
the Commissioner of Chotanagpur during British rule. The area
was inhabited by the autochthones tribes like Chero, Oraon and
Kharwar. Oraon ruled a part of Palamau from Rohtasgarh. The Chero
reigned in Palamau for more than 200 years. Among the important
Chero rulers, mention may be made of Raja Medini Rai (1662-1674).
He extended his sway over South Gaya and large parts of Hazaribagh
and Sarguja. Medini Rai's memory has survived more for his justice
than for his conquests. He built one of the Palamau forts (the
lower fort). His son Pratap Rai built a fort near his father’s
fort, which still exists in Betla.
The influence of Mughals extended to Palamau
during the reign of Emperor Akbar, when Palamau was invaded by
Raja Man Singh in 1574. The troops left by him were however driven
out in 1605, when Akbar died. In 1629 Shahjehan appointed Ahmad
Khan as Subedar of Patna and Palamau was given to him as jageer.
He imposed tribute on Chero rulers, but they refused to pay the
tribute and hence Palamau faced three successive invasions of
Muslims.
The quarrel among the claimants of rights of
kingship on Palamau gave way to the British to invade Palamau
for the first time in 1772 and the fort of Palamau was captured.
In 1832 the Cheros and Kharwars raised their voice against administration.
The insurgents were however defeated in an engagements with the
British forces near Latehar.
During 1857 movement Palamau was the most severely
affected zone of Chotanagpur plateau. The brothers Nilambar and
Pitambar, the chief of Bhogta clan of Kharwar tribe were holding
ancestral Jagirs. Taking advantage of the movements against British
rule they made up their minds to declare themselves to be independents
and were joined by many Chero Jagirdars. They jointly attacked
on British supporters. ‘O’ Malley (1907) has narrated
that Nilambar and Pitambar were eventually captured, tried and
hanged. Palamau played important role in freedom movement of the
country. A momentous event was the visit of Mahatma Gandhi along
with Shri Rajendra Prasad to Daltonganj on 11th January 1927 during
his second tour in Bihar. The August disturbances in 1942 had
their echoes in Palamau as well. Railway lines were dismantled,
telegraph lines were cut a large number of people both at the
district headquarters and the interior were arrested.
Thus it is apparent that Latehar as a part of
Palamau has undergone the impacts of Chero rule, British rule,
Muslim infusion, Jamindari and Jagirdari Pratha various freedom
movements etc. time to time.
Administration
Latehar town is the district headquarters of
Latehar district. The office of the Deputy Commissioner is located
in Latehar town. Deputy Commissioner is the head of the district
administration and is ex-officio chairman of various societies/agencies
that are involved in the development of the district. Deputy Commissioner
is also the District Programme Coordinator under NREGA. Various
Societies and governmental agencies that are in the direct control
of the Deputy Commissioner are D.R.D.A., D.U.D.A., MESO, Centrally
Sponsored Social sector, Welfare schemes etc.
No Panchayat elections have been held in the
state after 72/73rd amendment in the Constitution of India. Therefore,
as per the direction of the Govt, Deputy Commissioner is the ex-officio
Chairman of the District Rural Development Agency; which plans,
implements, supervises and monitors various centrally and State
Sponsored Schemes.
The Deputy Development Commissioner is the ex-officio Managing
Director of D.R.D.A. as well as Chief Executive officer. There
are seven blocks in the district. At the block level Block Development
officers are involved in development works of the respective blocks,
there are supervisory level officials & Panchayat Sevaks and
Jansewaks at the panchayat level.
Besides the Agencies that have been referred
above, there are various line departments that also plan, implement,
supervise and monitor the schemes as per instruction of their
respective departments.
1) District Agriculture Officer.
2) Divisional Forest Officer.
3) District Soil Conservation Officer.
4) District Welfare Officer.
5) District Fisheries Officer.
6) District Education Officer.
7) Civil Surgeon.
8) District Superintendent of Education.
9) Executive Engineer, R.E.O.
10) Executive Engineer, N.R.E.P.
11) Executive Engineer, Minor Irrigation.
12) Executive Engineer, P.W.D. (Road)
13) Executive Engineer, P.H.E.D.
14) Executive Engineer, Water Resources.
15) Executive Engineer, Electricity Board.
16) District Mining Officer.
17) G.M., D.I.C.
There is also a MESO Officer in this district,
who looks after various development schemes for the Tribals.
All these line departments though work under
their respective controlling officer of the department, but they
are under indirect control of Deputy Commissioner.
There is a 20-point Programme Implementation
Committee at the district level under the Chairmanship of Minister
of state of Govt., who is nominated by the State Govt. Deputy
Commissioner is ex-officio Secretary of the committee. This Committee
supervises and monitors implementation of the schemes of line
departments.
LATEHAR has
been named after the village of the same name on Ranchi Daltonganj
Road. It is 100 k.m. away by road from Ranchi, the capital of
Jharkhand. Latehar is famous for its rich natural beauty, forest,
forest products and mineral deposits. Latehar remained an integral
part of Palamau District as a sub division since 1924.
It got elevated from sub divisional status to a district on 4th
April 2001 vide Jharkhand Govt. Notification No 946 dated 04.04.2001.
Latehar is located on the north–west corner of Jharkhand in the
Palamau Commissionary. It is surrounded by Ranchi, Lohardaga,
Gumla, Palamau and Chatra district apart from Chhattisgarh state
and situated between 840.31’ East Longitude and 230 44.5’ North
Latitude.
It’s a predominantly tribal district with almost 40% of the population
belonging to the schedule tribes and more than 66 % of total population
comprises SCs and STs. The total area of the district is 3,671
Sq. Km and one of the block headquarters is more than 200 K.M.
away from the district headquarters.
There are seven Community Development Blocks in the district within
which distantly located villages are scattered amidst the dense
forest, hilly terrains and agricultural fields. The number of
Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes is predominantly high here
and Latehar comes under Tribal Sub Plan Area.
DEVELOPMENT SCHEMES.
(A) Centrally Sponsored Schemes: -
NATIONAL RURAL EMPLOYMENT GUARANTEE SCHEME
RASHTRIYA SAM VIKAS YOJANA (NOW BAKWARD REGIONS’ DEVELOPMENT
INITIATIVE)
INDIRA AWAS YOJANA
SWARNA JAYANTI GRAM SWAROJGAR YOJANA
PRADHAN MANTRI GRAM SADAK YOJANA
WATERSHED PROGRAMMES (HARIYALI)
(B) Centrally Assisted Schemes:-
Latehar district being a predominantly tribal
district comes under the Scheduled Area. Therefore, the Govt.
of India provides special assistance under article 275 (I) of
the Constitution of India and various other heads. Project Office
known as Micro Economic Socio Organisation (MESO) was created
to implement schemes under Integrated Tribal Development Programme
in Tribal Sub-Plan.
(C) State Sponsored Schemes:-
Under State Sponsored Scheme apart from health,
education irrigation schemes, other schemes under state govt.
in this district viz. C.M.G.S.Y. (Chief Minister Gram Setu Yojana)
and M.L.A. /M.L.C. Schemes are being implemented. The basic objective
of C.M.G.S.Y. is to provide connectivity of villages to panchayats
and panchayats to block headquarters by constructing bridges.
Birsa Munda Awas Yojana for PTGs and Deen Dayal Awas Yojana in
the pattern of IAY are being implemented. Mukhyamantri Kanyadan
Yojana is another ambitious scheme benefiting the village folk.
DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVES BY DISTRICT ADMINISTRATION
It’s a well known fact that we do not
have local self government at the grass root level for almost
three decades. To fill the gap, the administration has started
allotting the execution works to S.H.G.s in general and women
S.H.G.s in particular with the consent of Gram Sabhas. Under the
Rashtriya Sam Vikas Yojana, more than 250 Anganwadi Centre buildings
and more than 150 Primary School buildings are being built by
the women S.H.G.s. Similarly under NREGS and SCA schemes, Women
SHGs, Water Users’ Societies and NGOs have been given the
execution work.
Similarly, authority has been devolved to local
traditional village head. In the absence of local self govt.,
steps have been taken to empower the traditional tribal village
chieftains. Thus the local Gram Sabhas headed by Manaki Mundas,
Manjhis, Mahto etc. have been strengthened through fresh Gazette
notification in the District Gazette. These traditional chieftains
have been given financial teeth by empowering them to settle their
local sands deposits. They have been given important roles in
the selection, implementation and monitoring of local development
schemes.
It is to be noted that these individuals, institutions
or organizations, whether they are Gram Pradhans or Gram Sabhas
or S.H.G.s or N.G.O.s, they have joined the participation process
of development in the mainstream system, they will neither be
attracted nor will they permit their wards to disso late from
the mainstream. Further, whenever the elections for PRIs will
take place, these persons and institutions will be the major stakeholders.
In other way it can be said that capacity building process is
going on before the PRIs election, which would certainly strengthen
the democratic process at the grass root level.
The District Administration has also initiated
a unique programme of quality fish breeding. Thus, all such families
of SC and ST, who are living below poverty line, have been invited
to construct fish ponds on their personal land with govt. help.
Such fish hatcheries would not alienate the land rights of the
landlords and would give unhindered rights of fish production.
The beneficiaries of this scheme are being provided specialized
training by the experts of National Fisheries Research Institute,
Barrackpore (W.B). This scheme has gone a long way in the socio-
economic upliftment of the rural poor whose recurring income has
increased and buying power strengthened.
Education
There are 19 High Schools, 1224 Middle and Primary
Schools, one Model High School at Netarhat (Mahuadanr Block),
One Govt. Polytechnic and one Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, 05 Kasturba
Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas and 10 Residential schools for S.C/S.T.
students in Latehar district. Latehar became the first district
in Jharkhand where cooked mid-day meal scheme was initiated in
200 selected primary schools comprising 20,782 enrolled students
in December 2003. Now all 1224 primary schools, including all
EGS centres and all minority schools, comprising 1, 37,000 students
in January 2006 have been covered under this scheme and going
on successfully. With this the one fourth of total population
of district has been brought under the umbrella of mid day meal
scheme. Each of these Schools has been provided with Kitchen Sheds
for cooking and storage purpose and the same has been constructed
by utilizing development funds. Mother Committee “Sarswati
Vahini”, comprising all the mothers of students of the school
and where one of the mothers of the children becomes convener
of the committee and supervises the successful implementation
of the scheme at the school.
It is also to be noted that Latehar district
is a part of Palamau Division, which is very infamous for so-called
starvation deaths and acute malnutrition standard and it had been
the poignant issue for extremists to make people hostile towards
government and administration.
After introduction of mid day meal schemes even
at the remotest part of the district, nutrition standard of the
children has improved to a great extent.
It’s also to be noted that absenteeism
of the schoolteachers was very high in the district, but after
the implementation of the scheme it has come down to less than
10%.
MDM became the boon for administration, because
the district launched the programme in a campaign mode and all
the field officers and employees, irrespective of their official
assignments, played instrumental role in introduction, implementation
and monitoring of the scheme. During this process, they could
sneak through to those so-called forbidden areas, where they could
have never thought to visit for monitoring of their departmental
programmes.
Now not a single village is untouched by the
administration and not a single right meaning government employee
has been obstructed by the extremists in performance of his or
her duties.
I.C.D.S. Programme
Under I.C.D.S. Programme, total no of 649 Anganawari
Centers are functioning in this district out of which none of
the Anganwari Centres is building less. Recently 207 more Anganwari
Centres have been sanctioned, for which construction of building
and selection of AWCs will take place very soon. Cooked meal is
being provided in two projects of the district and the result
has been very encouraging. All projects will be covered very soon
under the cooked meal scheme.
Health
In Latehar district, 101 P.H.C.s, 7 Primary
Health Centres and One Sub-divisional Hospital are functioning
and none of the health centres is building less.
Child Health & Education
Infant mortality rate of the district is very high.
The main cause being:-
(a) Poor education of rural women.
(b) Negligence in health care during pregnancy.
(c) Mal nutrition and under nutrition.
The establishment of Aanganbari Kendras in remote
areas will provide the women and children a better plateform for
development of awareness towards health and education.
At present 227 Aanganabari Kendras are buildingless
.They are being run in private houses, leading to many functional
Problems. To ensure proper fuctioning of the programme, there
is proposal for the construction of Aanganabari Kendras. List
of buildingless Aanganbari Kendras is annexed here with annexure-IX.
HEALTH CARE
Condition of health Services in this district
is not satisfactory. Main cause behind high maternal mortalities
and infant mortalities rate is poor health service in the district.
The district lack network of health Centres. The out break of
malaria is very frequent in the district which often taken the
form of epidemic. The development of network of health centers
will lead to proper health care and conciousness of the rural
people.
There is proposal for the renovation of Primay
health Centre, Additional Primay Health Centres., Primay health
sub Centres.
Economy and Irrigation
The economy of the people revolves round the forest, agriculture
and minerals.
(a) Agriculture: - A large number of people are
engaged in agricultural activities. Cultivation of paddy, maize,
cereals, wheat, oil seeds etc. are common. The people are either
working as agricultural labourers or cultivators. Kharif and Rabbi
are the main agricultural seasons. Karma festival is celebrated
for good production of crops.
(b) Forest: - Out of total geographical area
of 4211-2508 sq. k.m., forest area covers nearly 2010.2245 sq.
k.m. The tribal economy revolves around using forest products,
by products and minor products. Kendu leaves, Bamboo and its manufactured
products, Mahua, fruits, leaves (used is the making of dona, pattal),
lac etc. play an important role in the economic activity of the
people. People also hunt animals for food and ‘Jani shikar’
festival is related to this hunting habit.
(c) Mines and Minerals: - The geological reports
say that the district is very rich in various mineral deposits.
There is abundance of deposit of Coal, Bauxite, Laterite, Dolomite,
and Graphite etc. Granite, Quartz, Fireclay, Felspar etc. The
excavation and exploration of these minerals have provided job
opportunities to the inhabitants of this hinterland to some extent
because these minerals have not been fully explored at large scale
and there are no mineral based industries in the district.
(d) Animal Husbandry: -The quality of livestock
is very poor. Cow, goats etc. are of local variety and the average
milk yield is very less. There is a vast scope in the field of
animal husbandry in Latehar.
(e) Trade and commerce: - In place of old Mahajans
and landlords, various banks are operating their branches is the
district but it is a matter of fact that most of the villages
are so scattered that the system of primary trade in the hands
of vyaparis and village sahukars still continues. Paddy thrashing,
dona pattal making, bamboo basket making, selling of mahua flowers.
Lacs, kendu leaves and other minor forest produces are main components
of trading activities. In the absence of major industries and
employment opportunities, the options of economic development
are limited. Animal husbandry, piggery and fisheries etc. have
good potential, but this sector has still remained unexplored.
