Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren on Saturday accused the BJP-led central government of neglecting the cause of the state even though it supplied medical oxygen to the country during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Addressing an event at Gandhi Maidan in Hazaribagh in North Chotanagpur division as part of Apke Adhikar, Apki Sarkar, Apke Dwar campaign on Saturday, Hemant said: “We supplied liquid medical oxygen through train, road and flights to various states during the Covid-19 crisis, but the Centre neglected our demands for financial support during the pandemic.”

In a tweet in June this year by the chief minister’s office, Jharkhand was shown to have topped the country in the supply of liquid medical oxygen, contributing 35 per cent of the demand.

At an event in Daltonganj on Friday, the chief minister had accused the Centre of only being interested in looting Jharkhand’s mineral resources.

“Coal blocks in the state were auctioned amid the pandemic, notwithstanding requests by our government to defer the process till the situation gets normal as that would have attracted more bidders. The Centre was more concerned about allotting the coal blocks to some of its ‘favourite companies’,” Soren had said on Friday.

“The Centre is not bothered about Jharkhand’s development. It intends to loot the state’s mineral resources,” he had added.

On the state’s outreach campaign, Hemant said 2.5 lakh complaints had been registered across the state so far and nearly 2.20 lakh had been addressed.

The campaign, which began on November 16, will continue till December 28,

Sensing the restlessness among a section of the youth over unemployment in the state, Soren said: “Recruitment rules have been framed and vacancies of all departments are being readied. Soon there will be massive recruitment at the government level. I would also ask youths to avail the benefits of government schemes in self-employment by taking loans ranging between Rs 50,000 and Rs 25 lakh at very low-interest rates.”

The chief minister said the state government was generating employment opportunities by making all private industries opening units in state to reserve 75 per cent of jobs for locals and award tenders up to Rs 1 crore to local residents.

Hemant also announced the constitution of a commission to look into displacement issues in the state.

The chief minister said the government was also working on a health scheme wherein anyone with an income of Rs 8 lakh per annum and suffering from critical disease would get direct treatment.

The chief minister distributed assets worth Rs 22.30 crore among 25,92,856 beneficiaries of various districts under the North Chotanagpur division.