RAJ KUMAR
Ranchi, April 18: The Jharkhand government has stopped giving state guest status to the union ministers visiting Jharkhand.
Following the development, Union Minister for State for Education Annapurna Devi, who was expected to remain present in Jharkhand on April 17 and 18, returned yesterday in the evening without participating in any official meeting.
BJP state president and Rajya Sabha member Deepak Prakash confirmed the situation saying that the state government has written letters to personal secretaries of the union ministers expected to visit Jharkhand.
“The state guest status is being denied citing a model of code of conduct for Panchayat Election. The letters in this regard are being given to private secretaries to the ministers,” Prakash said.
Prakash presented a copy of the letter by the Jharkhand cabinet coordination and vigilance department to the private secretary to the minister of state for Panchayati Raj as an example.
Prakash said the step was unexpected as a visitation programmes of ministers were planned to review the schemes for 19 aspirational districts, which the union government has developed for development and has provided funds for the same.
When contacted, Secretary of the State Election Commission Radheshyam Prasad said: “Matter of the model code of conduct has to be decided by the deputy commissioner. The commission will take action on the report of DC.”
JMM general secretary and spokesperson Supriyo Bhattacharya said ‘the JMM has nothing to take with the government decision. But if the government has made a decision, one should accept it.’
