RAJ KUMAR
Ranchi, March 2: The enthusiasm for NDA’s victory in the assembly election in tribal-dominated North Eastern states like Tripura, Nagaland and Meghalaya besides Ramgarh in Jharkhand today reflected in Jharkhand assembly during the debate on a cut motion brought by the party on the third supplementary budget of Rs 4546.27 crore tabled by the state government in the house.
BJP legislatures, who started his speech congratulating the voters which made them victorious, left no stone unturned to expose the failure of the Hemant Soren-led Jharkhand government while questioning the requirement of the supplementary budget a day before tabling the annual budget for the state.
BJP’s Dalit legislature Amar Kumar Bouri set the ball rolling by saying that the government, which is not able to spend budgetary allocation in the last 11 months, does not deserve a supplementary budget. He presented data suggesting the government could spend less than 35 per cent of the budgetary allocation for many departments.
Bouri said that the children passed the matriculation and left but till now the children have not got their bicycles as the government failed to float and finalised tender in three years. He said the government played the victim blaming the union government for step-motherly treatment which is far from the truth.
Presenting the data the BJP legislature rubbished the charge of step-motherly treatment. “From 2009-2014, the UPA government gave Rs 33,998 crore in tax and Rs 21,069 in grants, while the Modi government at the centre gave Rs 89,1048 crore in tax and Rs 44,641 as a grant from 2014 to 2019. In the last two years, the union government has given Rs 62315 as tax share and Rs 45,362 as grants to the state. The truth is that the government is not able to spend the money,” he said
Targeting the state government for its failure in spending the union fund for the tribal development, Bouri said, “Rs 135.8 crores was given under Tribal Sub Plan to the state government in the last two years but the government could spend only Rs 13.8 crores. This reflects the state government’s difference in its speech and action for tribal development.”
The BJP leader said that the Hemant Soren government does not think about Dalits and this is the reason none of the cabinet ministers is Dalit in the government.
Explaining how the Hemant Soren government failed to protect ‘Jal, Jungle and Zamin’ in the state, Bouri said due to the smuggling of sand, the water has started reflecting with the advent of summer.
He said in the same way as the illegal felling of trees, forest cover in Jharkhand has reduced to 10108 square kilometres from 23605 square kilometres. As far as the ST population is concerned, he said, it is also reduced to 24 per cent from 35 per cent due to ‘religious conversion’ and ‘love Jihad’.
BJP’s Bhawnathpur legislature Bhanu Pratap Shahi supported Bouri saying the government does not deserve additional budget as it is the outcome of ‘Autchiyaheen Darpok Bemel Gathjod (unreasonable, sneaky and mismatched alliances)’ and it is running like a bus.
Explaining why the government is the outcome of unreasonable, sneaky and mismatched alliances, he said, “Ministers have no faith in the cabinet. Ruling party MLAs speak against the government outside the house while they sit together in the house. During a congress party meeting a minister was heard saying that ‘Jab Majhi Naav Duboye to use Kaun Bachaye’.
The government gets so terrified by a sealed envelope that its chief minister flies to Raipur taking all its legislature. The government is being supported by the parties like BJP and RJD which never supported Jharkhand as a separate state.”
Bhanu also named the ruling party legislature who speaks against the government. The names included Lobin Hembram, Stephen Marandi, Mathura Prasad Mahto, Dipika Pandey Singh, Irfan Ansari, Amba Prasad, Naman Vixel Kongari, and Rajesh Kacchap.
Parliamentary affairs minister Alamgir Alam raised an objection saying it was wrong to say as they are with the government and can say so on the floor of the house. Mathura Prasad Mahto also intervened saying this happened, reminding how one minister in the former government was unhappy with the functioning of the government, referring to Saryu Rai.
Bhanu was interrupted by congress legislature Dipika Pandey Singh when he named Pt Jawahar Lal Nehru and Mohammed Ali Jinnah saying that their real character was exposed after they accepted the division of India and both became prime ministers of India and Pakistan.
Another interruption was given by parliamentary affairs minister Alamgir Alam when the BJP legislature alleged the ruling party was seeking votes in the name of Allah. As Alam interrupted Bhanu said the latter also seek a vote in the name of Jai Shree Ram, Bhanu retorted saying he did so openly while the ruling party did it secretly.
Saying that the government is running like a bus, Bhanu said, “Hemant is the driver. Congress is the conductor which collects money and RJD is Khalasi which keeps on blowing the whistle. The dispute among them takes place at the time of distribution of collected amounts.”
Following the debate, the House passed the supplementary budget. Before the budget was passed, finance minister Rameshwar Oraon called it necessary for the development of the state. He informed the house that this year the government could spend 68.73 per cent of the budgetary allocation so far while last year it was 52 per cent.
After this, the proceedings of the house were adjourned till tomorrow morning. Tomorrow the government will present the budget for the financial year 2023-24 in the house.
