Babulal Marandi in Giridih on Saturday. (Shahnawaz Akhtar)

Giridih, Feb. 6: Former chief minister and Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (JVM) chief Babulal Marandi has accused chief minister Shibu Soren of trying to render Operation Green Hunt ineffective.

“I have concrete information that Soren is tampering with the intelligence system to make Green Hunt ineffective,” Marandi said, adding that Soren’s public statements in support of the offensive were only aimed at confusing the forces.

Marandi’s charge comes just days before chief ministers of rebel-hit states like Jharkhand, Orissa, Bengal and Bihar are to meet in Calcutta to fine-tune a strategy to combat Maoist rebels.

Not satisfied with targeting Soren alone, Marandi trained his guns on the BJP as well. “I want the BJP and its leaders to clear their stand on Naxalites and Green Hunt,” he said.

“Since Vajpayee’s time, in every BJP-ruled state, the party’s stand on Naxalites has been clear, except in Jharkhand,” he added.

According to the JVM leader, the present government was the weakest Jharkhand has ever had.

“The government could not implement it’s own promises. The JMM had announced in its manifesto and also made a noise before the elections about declaring the state a drought-hit one, but has done nothing about it so far,” Marandi told reporters at the old circuit house here.

Commenting on the government, the JVM (P) chief said: “We had plans to make available ration cards to every home in Jharkhand and to provide foodgrains on nominal rates. The (PDS) public distribution system has to be strengthened to provide relief to people who are bearing the brunt of price rise. The JMM had also similar promises, but have not acted on them so far. The 100-day agenda has also not taken shape.”

He warned the government that if results were not visible soon, his party would hit the streets in protest.