Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren accused the BJP of pushing the state to the brink of poverty and adopting all means to remove an elected government in the state.

Giving the motion of thanks on the governor’s address on the last day of the special session of the Assembly on Thursday, Hemant blamed the previous BJP-led governments in the state for creating a situation wherein farmers were forced to commit suicide and people died of hunger despite having ration cards.

“After the separation of the state (carved out of Bihar in 2000) during the BJP governments, everyone was scared, struggling for life. The BJP tried to push Jharkhand into a quagmire. They used all tactics to remove us from power in 2019,” claimed Soren.

“Opposition people say Atal Ji (former Prime Minister and deceased BJP leader Atal Bihari Vajpayee) gave the separate state of Jharkhand. He indeed approved it. But the state was achieved through struggle, the fight went on for years and people were martyred and women became widows. You people tell me what the state got till 2019?” questioned Hemant.

He also stressed increasing job opportunities which had been raised by the Opposition to criticise Hemant in his previous term.

“We will create big opportunities. Bringing work to the people will be our priority. We became the first state in the country where we have made better laws for the poor,” claimed Hemant.

He said that the coalition government (JMM-Congress-RJD) formed in 2019 laid the foundation for the state’s development, and now, it is time to build on that foundation.

He highlighted the government’s commitment to implementing tangible development across various sectors, including infrastructure, tourism, and employment generation.

“Our priority is to ensure visible development on the ground, not just in words. We are working for all sections of society,” Soren stressed.

FIR against middlemen

Following the directive of chief minister Hemant Soren, police cases have been lodged in three separate districts of the state against a Mumbai-based company and five middlemen for fraudulently sending workers of the state to Cameroon.

According to a communique issued by the chief minister’s office on Thursday, Jharkhand labour commissioner lodged an FIR against the Mumbai-based M/s Transrail Lighting Limited and five middlemen for fraudulently sending 47 workers from three districts of Hazaribagh, Bokaro and Giridih and the FIRs were lodged in the home districts of the workers.

The FIR highlights that the employers and middlemen sent these workers to Cameroon without registering them under the Inter-State Migrant Workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1979, and without obtaining the required licence. This fraudulent and illegal act of sending workers abroad under false pretence has been strongly condemned.