The Hemant Soren-led Jharkhand cabinet continued to woo the masses with populist measures ahead of the Assembly polls in the state.

The cabinet on Friday evening made several decisions that would attract lawyers, assistant police personnel and women.

The cabinet approved a ₹5 lakh medical insurance cover for all 30,000 practising advocates in the state. Additionally, it approved two more key schemes aimed at supporting lawyers. Advocates aged 65 years and above will now receive a monthly pension of ₹14,000, while newly enrolled advocates will be provided a monthly stipend of ₹5,000 for the first five years of their practice.

Jharkhand cabinet secretary Vandana Dadel said that the contributions to all three schemes will be made by the state government to Jharkhand Advocates’ Welfare Fund.

Jharkhand advocate-general Rajiv Ranjan, who played a crucial role in getting welfare schemes approved by the state government, said that chief minister Hemant Soren has fulfilled his promises made to lawyers at an interactive meeting held with them last year.

Expressing gratitude to the chief minister, he said Jharkhand happens to be the first state in the country to frame such rules for the welfare of lawyers. “It is a message to the entire country,” he added.

In a move to appease the assistant police personnel, who have been on a warpath on various demands, the cabinet approved extending their service period for one more year. Their remuneration was increased to ₹13,000 per month and medical and accidental insurance covers were hiked to ₹1 lakh and ₹4 lakh respectively.

“Assistant police personnel will now get an annual allowance of ₹4,000 for uniforms and women police personnel will get maternity leaves at par with other contractual workers,” said Dadel.

In another decision, the cabinet approved a proposal to extend the monthly stipends under the Mukhyamantri Maiyya Samman Yojana to include women aged 18 years and above. Earlier, the scheme was for women aged between 21 and 50 years enabling them to receive monthly financial assistance of ₹1,000.

With the lowering of the slab, 8 lakh new beneficiaries will be added to the existing 48 lakh beneficiaries.