Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren paid an exemplary tribute to democratic institutions when he chose to speak at the state Assembly for making some cabinet decisions public.

“Since the House is in session, it would not be proper to announce the people-friendly decisions the state cabinet took in its meeting of March 12 outside,” he told the Speaker, adding his government was respectful towards democratic norms and the dignity of the House.

“We (the leaders) will come and go and the governments will change but the House will always remain there,” Hemant further said, adding it was of utmost importance that everyone maintained and enhanced sadan ki garima (the dignity of the House).

“It was like observing the model code of conduct followed during election time,” the chief minister later told media persons, explaining why he thought it would not be proper to make public announcement about those cabinet decisions and added that policy decisions should not be announced publicly when the House is in session.

The decisions of the cabinet that Hemeant announced in the Assembly were, however, already known.

The chief minister announced in the Assembly that the government decided that 75 per cent of jobs available in private factories and companies would be kept reserved for the local candidates.

He also declared that the government would consider road accidents as a disaster and pay Rs 1 lakh to the next-of-the-kin or dependents of the victims.

He further announced that such youths who were technically trained but unemployed would be paid an annual assistance of Rs 5,000.

Though the details of those decisions were to be worked out by the departments concerned, it is gathered that only such jobs with a monthly salary limited to Rs 30,000 would be reserved for the local candidates.

“The decision of reserving three-fourths of such jobs for local candidates is fine but the government should also skill such youths in the trades that are required for the local industrial units,” said Praveen Jain Chabra, president of the state’s apex trade body Federation of Jharkhand Chamber of Commerce and Industries.

“The state government has schemes for providing skill development training and they should skill the youths after identifying the proper trades that are required for the industrial units located within the state,” he further said, adding that would actually be helpful for both the youths and industrial units of the state.

There were about 634 such units that were lying idle in the state at present, Chabra further pointed out, adding those could also accommodate many such youths if those were reopened as the state government was also wanted to.