Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren flagged issues to portray the “step-motherly” attitude of the central government towards the state scheduled for Assembly polls by 2024 end.
In his address at a review meeting of Left Wing Extremism (LWE) affected states — which was chaired by Union home minister Amit Shah — in Delhi on Friday, Soren took the opportunity to remind the Centre about the pending royalty of Rs 1.36 lakh crore to coal PSUs.
“Coal mining in Jharkhand is done primarily by subsidiaries of Coal India Limited and these subsidiaries owe huge outstanding to the Jharkhand government. There is an outstanding of Rs 1,01,142 crore for non-payment of land compensation, Rs 32,000 crore under common cause dues head and Rs 2,500 crore under washed coal royalty head. I would request the Centre to clear the outstanding dues of Rs 1,36,042 crore at the earliest,” said Soren.
Amit Shah at the review meet on Friday. PTI picture
In the recent past, Soren had alleged that his repeated demand for outstanding royalty dues has led to the Centre unleashing federal agencies like the Enforcement Directorate (ED) against him and adopting a “step-motherly” attitude towards the state.
Soren skipped the ED’s fifth summon over the alleged money laundering charges in Ranchi on Wednesday and instead approached Jharkhand High Court challenging the ED summon. The case was listed for October 11.
At the review meeting, Soren also drew attention of Shah towards the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY- Centre’s flagship scheme promising houses for all) and claimed that about 8 lakh eligible beneficiaries in Jharkhand are still deprived of the benefits of this scheme and alleged that the Union rural development ministry was not taking any positive decision in this regard despite repeated requests from the state government.
He requested the Union home minister to provide the benefits to these eight lakh eligible beneficiaries of Jharkhand.
In February this year, Soren had met Union rural development and panchayati raj minister Giriraj Singh in New Delhi and requested him to sanction 8.37 lakh houses in the state under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY-rural) for families registered on the Awas Plus portal.
The chief minister claimed to have informed the Union rural development and panchayati raj minister during the meeting that all registered beneficiaries are poor and in need of a dwelling.
A letter which was shared to the media by the chief minister’s office in February had mentioned that only 4,03,504 units were sanctioned in the financial year 2021-22, despite Awas Plus having listed 10,35,895 beneficiaries. Soren had also said that 2,03,061 families were removed from the list by the rural development ministry.
Political observers felt that the move by Soren was aimed at earning brownie points against the Centre in the run-up to the general elections and Assembly polls next year by portraying that the Centre was not heeding the needs of the poor of the state.
“The issue of housing for the poor is a sentimental one and is expected to tilt the scales in favour of the ruling dispensation. Along with this, the demand for caste census made by Soren on Thursday late evening clearly shows the game plan undertaken by Soren to corner the BJP-led Centre,” said Sudhir Pal, a veteran journalist.
Soren had on Thursday backed the demand for entitlements to the backward social groups, including the Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST) and the Other Backward Classes (OBC), in proportion to their population. He said he was in its favour and a proposal in this regard was already sent to the Raj Bhavan on reservation and communities.