Chief minister Hemant Soren exuded confidence in placing Jharkhand among developed states with the right policies in place in the coming years.

Addressing a function in Ranchi to mark three years of JMM-Congress-RJD alliance government in Jharkhand, on Thursday, Soren said: “With the policies formulated and in place in the last three years and with the right intents in which we are working I am confident that the state will develop and we will be counted among developed ones. It is like planting a fruit-bearing tree and the time has come to reap the benefits of fruits in the coming years.”

Soren took the opportunity to lament the past governments for not thinking about the state’s progress.

“Unfortunately, in the last 20 years, nothing was done to take the state forward. I do not want to pass caustic remarks but the state endowed with mineral resources and other potential is still bracketed among backward. People reaped benefits from our mineral resources and went away while our residents languished in poverty,” he said.

He said that in the past three years, two years they had to confront the Covid pandemic but claimed that they accepted the crisis as an opportunity and managed to cope with it better than developed states.

Soren stressed that their government would continue to fight for the voice and rights of tribals, minorities, marginalised and poor and said development works are being done in all sectors with schemes for every class and section like farmers, labourers, government employees, elders, women, youths.

On this occasion, Rs 950 crore was transferred through DBT among beneficiaries of the Chief Minister Drought Relief Scheme (Rs 3,500 to each of the over 25 lakh farmers), Savitribai Phule Kishori Samriddhi Yojana (Rs 2,500 to girl students in Class VIII and IX, Rs 5,000 to girl students in Class X-XII and Rs 20,000 after attaining 19 years) and Pre-Matric Scholarship Scheme (aimed at reducing dropouts from Class I and above, Rs 1,500 for ST/SC students, backward communities students of Class I-V).

A compendium of state personnel, administrative reform and Rajbhasa department was launched for the first time since the state’s creation.

It contained a sector-wise consolidated compilation of departmental rules/circulars/resolutions pertaining to appointment, promotion, reservation, departmental action, conduct and retirement.