Former CM Das slams Hemant govt, terms it ‘anti-farmer, youth’

RANCHI: Bhartiya Janata Party’s (BJP) national vicepresident and former Jharkhand chief minister Raghubar Das on Monday termed the incumbent state government led by chief minister Hemant Soren as “incompetent and disoriented”.

Speaking to media persons here at BJP’s headquarters, Das said the Soren government’s decisions in the last one year exposed its “anti-farmer, antiyouth and anti-women” stands.

“The present Jharkhand government led by chief minister Soren is incompetent and disoriented. In the last one year, it revoked all major welfare schemes meant for farmers, youths and women. The government’s decisions exposed its anti-farmer, youth and women policies,” Das said.

Citing examples, Das added, “The recent Chhaka Jam to support farmers’ movement in the state did not see participation of farmers themselves. In fact, people associated with ruling parties and Left parties created chaos.”

“The present government has no real concern for farmers. Had it been so, it would not have revoked the previous government’s scheme of paying ₹5,000 to ₹25,000 annually to marginalised farmers having land holdings below 5 five acres,” he added.

The former chief minister also slammed the government for taking anti-youth decisions. He said the previous BJP government in the state, for the first time in 2016, had introduced a state employment policy which prescribed grade III and grade IV government jobs to local residents for 10 year.

“Under this policy, jobs were restricted only to local residents of 13 scheduled and 11 non-scheduled districts within the state. There was no illegality in it. But, the government didn’t properly pursue a case related to this in the high court, which struck down the employment policy last year. Now, Soren government has announced that it would bring a new employment policy to give jobs to local residents. It’s only misguiding the youths,” Das said.

He pointed out that the state government had challenged the aforementioned high court decision in the Supreme Court. “Why did the government go to the Supreme court if it felt that the 2016 employment policy was wrong or illegal?,” Das said.

He cited more examples to buttress his claim that the state government was also antiwomen.

Das said, “Under the women empowerment scheme, the BJP government had introduced a token registration fee of ₹1 only for property purchased in favour of a woman and valued up to ₹50 lakh. But, soon after taking charge, the Soren government revoked this decision.”