Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren has assured the people of the state that his government is committed to protecting their rights while ushering in holistic development on all fronts.

Addressing the 75th Independence Day event at the Morabadi ground in Ranchi on Sunday, Soren said: “I want to assure the simple-hearted people of Jharkhand that this government is committed to protect their rights, cultural identity and also ensure their participation in the development on all fronts.”

He said that new policies and amendments are being made to speed up development keeping democracy as the foundation stone.

Citing the Industrial and Investment Promotion Policy 2021, Soren said: “This policy will prove to be a milestone in creating more and more employment opportunities for the poor people in this state which is rich in natural resources and rich in minerals.”

He also spoke about the amendments of various recruitment and examination conduct rules to safeguard the interests of local students.

Soren said the government, which was battling the Covid-19 pandemic for over a year, is striving to bring the state back on the track of development on the basis of life and livelihood. Since 75 per cent of the state’s population is reliant on agriculture, the government is focussed on rural development, he said.

“The government has made a budgetary provision of Rs 7,644 crore for this sector, giving priority to rural development in this year’s budget. A provision of Rs 3,189 crore has been made for agriculture sector and Rs 2,623 crore for panchayati raj,” said Soren, adding that several initiatives have been undertaken to strengthen and provide employment to villagers with convergence of the MGNREGA and other schemes.

“The Jharkhand State Agricultural Debt Waiver Scheme has been implemented to provide relief to the small and marginal farmers who are burdened with agricultural debt. Under this scheme, Rs 750 crore has been transferred to the loan account of 182,561 farmers. The Jharkhand State Crop Relief Scheme has been started in the financial year 2021-22 to compensate farmers for the economic loss,” said Soren.

He also said the government had set a target of increasing the contribution of agriculture in the state’s GDP from 12 per cent to 20 per cent, for which it is preparing an action plan.

“This year we have started the integrated Birsa Gram Vikas Yojana-cum-Krishak Pathshala scheme. In the first phase, one farm in each district will be developed as a farmers’ school by developing various aspects of agriculture such as advanced farming techniques, cultivation of horticultural crops, animal husbandry, fisheries, and improved irrigation systems. While developing the capacity of local farmers in Krishak Pathshala, their income will be increased by making them skilled and employment-oriented in agriculture, animal husbandry, fisheries, pig farming, etc,” he said.

Apart from this, a 5,000 metric tonnes capacity model cold storage is being constructed in all districts for better storage and marketing of agricultural and vegetable products, he added.

“To ensure the participation of all sections in the development of the state, the Chief Minister's Employment Generation Scheme has been started to provide self-employment to the SC/ST (Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes), minorities and backward class youths in rural and urban areas through easy and cheap loans. Under this scheme, there is a provision to give a maximum loan of Rs 25 lakh to the beneficiaries, in which the loan subsidy will be given at the rate of 40 per cent or maximum Rs 5 lakh, whichever is less,” said Soren.

Stressing on quality higher education as a priority of the government, Soren said: “Eighty schools of excellence and 325 block-level leader schools along with 4,091 panchayat-level model schools have been envisaged by the state government. In the first phase, work has been started to develop 80 schools at the district level as Schools of Excellence at a cost of about Rs 290 crore with modern infrastructure. The efforts of the government has led to gross enrolment ratio increasing to 20.9 per cent in Jharkhand. Action has begun to establish the Jharkhand Open University and Jharkhand Tribal University with an aim to increase the gross enrolment ratio further.”

“Improvement of infrastructure in hospitals and upgrade of road networks is also the priority of the state government. We are also eyeing to make Jharkhand a power surplus state with power generation stations at Patratu and North Karanpura,” the chief minister said.