VIJAY DEO JHA
Ranchi, Feb. 22: AICC general secretary and Jharkhand Congress in-charge Avinash Pande has said that his party would press the Hemant Soren government to announce a date for the Panchayat election in Jharkhand.
Addressing a press conference on the concluding day of the three days Chintan Shivir held at Madhuban in Giridih, Pande said that the schedule of the election should be immediately announced. He said that the state government should implement the decision for 27 percent reservation to the OBCs in the panchayat body.
The Panchayati Raj Department is headed by the Congress minister Alamgir Alam who on the second day of the Chintan Shivir had tabled a proposal in support of the panchayat poll.
“Our biggest fear is that the process of the election may be hampered due to any court judgment and the election is once again suspended. To avoid such a situation, it is necessary that the decision regarding the OBC reservation is immediately implemented within a time frame. This is not related to the Panchayat election only. This was the commitment we had made to the OBC population,” said Pande.
He said that a decision on this matter should not be kept pending as it affects the careers of OBC youth.
The Congress has four ministers in the Hemant Soren-led government and Pande said that the time has come when the JMM, Congress and the RJD should work out a common minimum programme to run the government.
“A draft of the common minimum programme has been prepared which we are going to give to chief minister Hemant Soren who heads the alliance,” Pande said. He also advocated the formation of the coordination committee from the state to district level to ensure that welfare and developmental programmes of different departments are implemented in a better way. He said that Congress should be allowed to head the committee.
He said that ministers of his party have started holding ‘Janta Darbar’ to solve the problem of the common people. He said that he has advised the legislative fold of the party to organize the legislative party meeting every month in any district.
Pande informed that the party has planned to hold a rally anytime during the last week of April or first week of May which will be attended by Rahul Gandhi.
As far as the performance of the Congress in the government is concerned, he said that his party had promised to ensure loan waiver to all farmers. The target however has been achieved, he added.
