Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren, embroiled in an office-of-profit row with the Election Commission, has accused the Centre of retarding the state’s development using central agencies.

Launching a fresh drive to identify activists who were part of the statehood movement in Ranchi on Friday, Hemant made an all-out attack against the central government and its agencies.

“I am addressing you as chief minister but my greatest identification is being a son of a fighter for separate state (JMM patriarch Shibu Soren who was also present as the chief guest on the occasion). After coming to power in the state (December 2019), we had to face the Covid-19 pandemic for over two years which almost halted development work.

“Now, as we have begun intensifying the pace of development, the Centre is using constitutional institutions against us to slow down this pace of development,” Hemant said.

However, exuding confidence Hemant said: “The state has fought for independence when nobody in the country had even imagined and we have fought and got this state and we will fight this move of the central government and come out clean and victorious.”

JMM patriarch Shibu Soren at the event in Ranchi. Manob Chowdhury

Hemant said that there is a perception among those in power at the Centre that minerals in the state can be looted taking advantage of the illiteracy.

“We will not let this happen anymore. The state people will have the first ownership over mineral resources and only after its need is met, we will allow it to be given to the Centre. They (Centre) cannot take the people for a ride taking advantage of their illiteracy and the state government is going to strengthen education of the coming generation.

“Preparation has been made for over 5,000 state-owned model schools with state-of-the art education systems at par with best of private schools,” said Hemant.

Reiterating the financial constraints faced by the state due to Central agencies not clearing pending dues, Hemant said: “The central government PSUs owe us over Rs 1.36 lakh crore for several decades.

“Earlier the governments were only interested in looting mineral resources and not in getting the rights of the state. Only after the state receives interest on the pending dues from the Centre, can we make Jharkhand among the developed states with infrastructures like Bangalore and Hyderabad. I have written several times to the government but they have only paid Rs 1,200 crore so far.”

Hemant also gave the reason for being targeted by the central agencies.

“All the corruption was done by the earlier governments (BJP) and we are being blamed for it. We will be replying to each of the accusations. The central government is upset as the state government is making laws wherein state residents will be given preference on ownership of the mines being auctioned. It is for this reason that the Centre has targeted us with constitutional institutions as they know that if we remain in power they would not get an opportunity to loot the mineral resources,” the chief minister said.

Hemant announced that a provision for pension exists in different categories for those who had gone to jail during the statehood agitation.

There is a provision of monthly pension of Rs 3,500 for those who had stayed for less than three months in jail, Rs 5000 for those who stayed for three months to six months and Rs 7000 for those who stayed for more than six months, he stated.

The dependents of agitators killed in police filing their dependents will be given government jobs, the chief minister said.

Jharkhand High Court on Friday accepted the maintainability of a public interest litigation (PIL) petition, seeking a probe against Hemant for alleged irregularities in the grant of mining lease and also on transactions of some shell companies allegedly operated by his family members.

A division bench of Chief Justice Ravi Ranjan and Justice Sujit Narayan Prasad had concluded the hearing on June 1 on the directive of the Supreme Court.

The court accepted the maintainability of the PIL and fixed June 10 as the next date of hearing.