‘Misrule of 20 years’: Jharkhand CM slams previous state govts

HAZARIBAG: Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren has pulled up the previous governments for their alleged misrule and neglect of the poor people of the state for the last two decades.

In contrast, Jharkhand has made tremendous progress in the last four years despite the Centre’s dilly-dally approach in paying royalty on coal to the tune of Rs 1.36 lakh crore, claimed Soren who became the chief minister after a JMM-led alliance came to power in the state in December, 2019.

Jharkhand came into being on November 15, 2000, and since then the state has been ruled mostly by the BJP.

“The previous governments did nothing for the people of Jharkhand, particularly the weaker section of the society. The poor people, including widows, had to run from pillar to post to get their pension,” Soren said.

He was addressing a gathering on the ‘Aapki Yojana-Aapki Sarkar-Aapke Dwar’ (Your scheme, your government, at your doorstep) or ‘AYASAD’ programme on Monday at Ichak in Hazaribagh district.

“The power supply in seven districts under the DVC command area was disconnected on the pretext of unpaid dues during the previous regime. But when we seek our legitimate dues from the central government, it adopts a reticent approach,” the JMM executive president said.

The BJP-led Centre tried to harass the Jharkhand government by levelling corruption charges and used the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to harass it, he alleged.

“The ED issued summons to me and many other officials but we ignored that and carried out developing the state and improving its economy,” the chief minister said.

The ED has issued several summonses to Soren for questioning in a money-laundering case linked to an alleged land scam.

“The Jharkhand government has decided to generate more power to get rid of DVC very soon,” Soren said, expressing hope that in the next one year, the state will become self-sufficient in power generation and people would no longer need to depend on DVC for electricity.

Around one lakh consumers are now availing 100 units of free power in Hazaribag district under the policy framed by his government, Soren said.

He announced that more schemes for the poor would be unveiled after his government completes four years later this month.

Referring to the 35 lakh and 55 lakh applications received in the first and second phases of AYASAD regarding problems faced by the poor people, Soren claimed these indicated that the previous governments did nothing for them.

Even government officials, who were being paid salaries to serve the general public, were not allowed to discharge their responsibilities, he alleged.

“We made the same officials to resolve the problems of the poor people at their doorstep. They are travelling to remote areas on bullock carts, buses and motorcycles carrying their laptops and printers etc to serve them,” Soren said.