Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren is hopeful that Wednesday’s meeting with the Niti Aayog team would help bridge the gap between the Centre and the state.

“They have assured that a meeting will be organised soon for sorting out outstanding issues between the Centre and the state,” Soren told after the meeting with a 8-member Niti Aayog team led by its member V.K. Paul was over that evening.

“We are always in favour of strengthening federal structure of the country and that type of initiatives will surely help us all doing so,” he sounded optimistic while speaking to the media and added the state was assured that some of its grievances would be addressed.

Reminding that the Centre had already deducted about Rs 2,800 crore from the state’s consolidated fund and was to deduct Rs 1,100 crore more soon for payment to Damodar Valley Corporation towards electricity charges though Jharkhand had contested the amount claimed and also expressed willingness to exist from the existing tripartite agreement. “We have requested to keep such deductions on hold until the matter is sorted out,” Soren said, adding the Niti Aayog gave a positive reply as they did in case of GST compensation also.

“We will get about Rs 1,800 crore towards GST compensation and expect something would come out in the next meeting to be held in Kanpur soon,” the chief minister said.

He also said that Coal India Limited owed the Jharkhand government a huge amount towards royalty for coal mined and compensation for the land used for the purpose.

“We have also demanded a survey be conducted in the coal belt for assessing the socio-economic impact of century-old coal mining and also ascertaining if it benefited the people at all,” Soren informed.

The chief minister further informed that 20-odd matters were discussed in the meeting with the Niti Aayog team that lasted for about three hours.

Among other issues that the state government raised included demanding Rs 300 crore for addressing prevalent malnutrition among children and another Rs 600 crore for cleansing Damodar river that became too polluted.

The Jharkhand government also demanded special concessions such as relaxation in taxes for SC/ST entrepreneurs as in force in the Northeast.

The state government further demanded that 25 per cent quota in allotment of Covid-19 vaccines to private hospitals be curtailed and instead given to the state government as “there are not many private hospitals in the state and the people here are not affluent enough to take the jab by paying so much”.

“If more vaccines are given to the state well in advance, we can vaccinate up to 3.5 lakh people daily which is now limited to maximum 1.5 lakh people,” Soren explained the reason.