As part of the Prime Minister’s Rural Development Fellows (PMRDF) programme that was launched here on Saturday, young professionals will work in Maoist-affected and tribal areas across the country including eight districts of Andhra Pradesh.
Launching the programme, Union minister for rural development Jairam Ramesh said that PMRDF would strive to bring convergence of development and welfare programmes and sche-mes by the Central and the state governments in Integrated Action Plan (IAP) districts, a nomenclature for Maoist affected areas.
“Young professionals will act as ‘sherpas’ to the district collectors. They will stay put in the affected villages and help the administration in ascertaining issues in the area of work and report to the administration. They are not the eyes and ears of the Centre,” he said. In the first phase of the programme under the ministry of rural development, 156 selected graduates from across the country with diverse disciplinary backgrounds will be posted after training in 84 Maoist-affected districts in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Odisha, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh as well as Maharashtra.