M F AHMAD
Daltonganj, Jan 25: River Koel, whose water is to be used in the Rs. 161.77 crore phase 2 urban water supply scheme in Daltonganj, is cool, calm and sedate but the two major political parties in Jharkhand, BJP and JMM, are at daggers’ drawn. These two political parties bay for each other’s political scalp.
This time, the political fight between them is for taking credit for the phase 2 urban water supply scheme.
The contention of the BJP is that this scheme was given technical approval during its ‘double engine ki sarkar’ and hence the party has the legitimacy to call this scheme of its own time.
The phase 2 urban water supply scheme was in limbo for four or five years.
Sources said the agency SMS Paryavaran was given the work order to complete the phase 2 urban water supply scheme in Daltonganj when Raghubar Das was the chief minister of Jharkhand. The agency failed miserably and the state government led by Raghubar Das had to throw it out from this scheme and the agency was blacklisted.
On the other hand the JMM contends that the scheme was finally approved administratively in the cabinet meeting of Hemant Soren on January 19, 2022 and hence, it is the JMM that has set the scheme rolling and not the BJP as its MP Palamu is trying to make out.
The JMM is out to grab the opportunity to tell its people here that it is the Hemant Soren government which has done this work for them as the previous government of BJP had lingered it.
On the other hand, BJP comes out with its fact sheet about the ups and downs of the scheme.
The BJP drummed about this phase 2 town water supply scheme through its two term sitting MP V D Ram who held a press conference a day after the cabinet meeting of January 19 where in the MP spent more time on detailing the salient features of this multi crore water scheme without even tangentially making any political allusion to it.
MP Palamu was very articulate while outlining the benefits of this urban water supply scheme without mentioning anyone’s name.
He was accompanied by the mayor Aruna Shankar, Vijayanand Pathak district president and Vijay Ojha a senior leader of the BJP when he held his press conference.
The JMM had never this idea that a BJP MP would be so quick to hold a press conference in just 24 hours of the cabinet meeting where this scheme was approved and so the JMM felt that it had missed the first bus and then it began to beat the version of the MP said a BJP leader.
The JMM held a counter press conference a day later after the BJP MP press conference where its district president Rajinder Sinha and others vented their full ire over the BJP and specially over MP Palamu V D Ram accusing the party and its MP of taking credit for things which neither the party nor the MP has done any more.
BJP MP V D Ram too did not take this counter press conference of JMM lightly and sent in two of his party leaders, Vijayanand Pathak district president and Vijay Ojha a senior leader of the BJP, to explain the things related to this scheme.
The two held a press conference on Monday (January 24) in which the two picked more holes in the claims of the JMM declining the allegations that the BJP or its MP had any intention of getting any mileage from this scheme.
The JMM not to be outdone by this duo press conference again hit back by holding another press conference second in quick succession the same day (Monday) when the protege of the MP held the press conference repeating its old accusation that it is the habit and practice of the BJP to take credit for things which it does not do at all.
Sources reminded that the phase 2 town water supply scheme has so far seen 4 press conferences, 2 each by BJP and JMM, and none is sure if more such press conferences are in the pipeline.
