Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren has asked people of the state to brace up for agitation against the Centre for delaying payment of outstanding coal royalty dues of ₹1.36 lakh crore.

“We got the state after a lot of sacrifice and agitation and time has come for another round of agitation for our legitimate rights and we should all gear up for it. I had asked for the right of outstanding coal royalties of ₹1.36 lakh crore and was sent to jail. However, we are not afraid of ED and other (federal) agencies. We will fight for our rights for the development of our people,” said Soren while addressing a function in Bokaro on Tuesday.

Earlier in the day, Hemant had shared on his social media handle hoping that Prime Minister Narendra Modi who is scheduled to visit Hazaribagh in Jharkhand on October 2 to announce the release of the outstanding royalty dues. Hemant had also said that he was jailed for seeking this outstanding royalty amount.

Hemant was arrested by the ED on January 31 on an alleged money laundering case pertaining to a land scam in Ranchi and was in judicial custody before being released in June on the order of the Jharkhand High Court.

Hemant had on September 25 shared on his social media handle (X) a letter written to the Prime Minister reminding him about his 2022 letterstating Coal India Limited (CIL), a PSU did not clear the ₹ 1.36 lakh crore dues despite the Supreme Court’s order on mining dues, causing irreparable loss to the state and its people.

He demanded a direct debit of the amount from Coal India’s account to the state of Jharkhand from the reserves in the Reserve Bank of India as was done in the case of Jharkhand State Electricity Board dues to the DVC.

He had in the letter also said the nine-judge Supreme Court bench recently ruled in favour of the state collecting its mining and royalty dues.

The Prime Minister is scheduled to attend the concluding ceremony of the Jharkhand BJP’s ‘Parivartan Yatra’ in Hazaribagh on October 2. On the occasion, he will also lay the foundation stone, and launch and inaugurate various projects worth over ₹83,300 crore.

Claiming to expose the failures of the ruling JMM-led alliance in the state, Union home minister Amit launched‘Parivartan Yatra’ on September 20, which witnessed the visit of Union ministers Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Rajnath Singh.