Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren Monday launched a broadside against the BJP saying it had exploited the state during it rule during the last 20 years. Soren, who was addressing a rally here during the 'Khatiyani Johar Yatra' to mark three years of UPA government in the state, said the UPA government helmed by him has been delivering the promises made by it to ensure that benefits of government schemes reached villagers.
The opposition BJP was not able to digest the development work of the UPA government, he said and hit out at the saffron party saying that the previous 'double engine' governments in Jharkhand had caused much harm to the state.
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The chief minister said his government has taken a "historic step" to increase reservation in vacant government posts and services in the state to 77 per cent besides fixing land records with 1932 as the cut-off year to determine domicile status and those who fit the definition of local residents.
“Whatever we promised to the people, we have delivered. It is now the Centre’s responsibility to include Jharkhand's policies on reservation and fixing land records with 1932 as the cut-off year in the Ninth Schedule of the Constitution," he said. The ninth schedule contains a list of central and state laws which cannot be challenged in courts..
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Soren said that by linking people to the government schemes, his government has brought justice to those who were running from pillar to post to avail benefits for years. "We got our state after tireless struggles, but the conspirators who ruled Jharkhand for 20 years only exploited the people ... The people were deprived of their basic rights for years. It is the present government that organised thousands of camps by sending officers to villages and lakhs of people were linked to various schemes," the chief minister said.
An overwhelming 35 lakh applications were received under various schemes ever since the government launched the programme to take its schemes to the villagers' doorsteps, he claimed. Asserting that the UPA government has brought thousands of beneficiaries under the Mukhyamantri Pashudan Yojana, Soren said "We are providing livestock as well as animal sheds under the scheme. I appeal to the people to take benefit of the scheme as it will enhance livelihood and improve the health of people in the villages”.
He urged villagers to conserve livestock and said domestic animals are "like ATMs" for them and the backbone of rural economy. Increasing the number of livestock would strengthen the rural economy and police has been directed to take action against cattle smugglers, Soren, who met and talked to a large number of villagers, assured. The state Assembly recently cleared two bills - The ‘Jharkhand Reservation of Vacancies in Posts and Services (Amendment) Bill, 2022’, that raised reservation from 60 per cent to 77 percent and another bill for using land records with 1932 as the cut-off year to determine domicile status.
