Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren, who recently completed three years of the JMM-CongressRJD alliance government, will resume Khatiyani Johar Yatra from January 17 to counter the BJP’s political drill for the 2024 Lok Sabha and Assembly polls.

“The first phase of the Khatiyani Johar Yatra was a tremendous success with people coming out in large numbers to greet the chief minister and also air their grievances in terms of lapses in the execution of government schemes at districts. However, the yatra had to be cut short on December 16 due to the winter session of the Assembly. Now it will resume from January 17 after the Makar Sankranti and Tusu festivity,” said a senior official in the chief minister’s secretariat in Ranchi.

“The second phase of the yatra will start at Koderma in North Chotanagpur division and cover other districts of Kolhan division and South Chotanagpur division. However, we have planned meetings in Chaibasa and Seraikela in the Kolhan division. Chaibasa has been included as part of a strategy to counter the BJP’s campaign against the state government and the chief minister through their central leaders in January,” said the official.

Union home minister Amit Shah is supposed to address a rally at Tata College Ground in Chaibasa of West Singhbhum district on January 7 with the BJP going all out to wrest back the Singhbhum seat which it had lost to the Congress candidate Geeta Koda in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. Both Chaibasa and Seraikela fall under Singhbhum parliamentary constituency.

The rally was named Khatiyani Johar Yatra, as it celebrates the government’s new domicile policy based on land records (Khatiyan) of 1932 which was passed by the state Assembly last month and other government achievements such as 27 per cent reservation for OBC, resumption of the old pension scheme, loan waiver scheme for farmers and crop relief scheme.

The first phase of the yatra started from Garhwa on December 8 and covered Palamau, Gumla, Lohardaga, and Godda and ended at Deoghar on December 16.

During the first phase, Soren reviewed development-related works at the district level and took stock of the actual progress by visiting various districts in person. Apart from addressing rallies to showcase the achievements of his three-year-old government, the chief minister also listened to the complaints of the masses.

The chief minister will pay special focus on the status of schools of excellence, model schools, government schools, health centres, hospitals, hostels, drinking water supply, conditions of roads and bridges, irrigation facilities, anganwadi centres, public distribution system (PDS) shops, as well as other basic facilities related to common people.

He will also ensure proper implementation of focused schemes of the state government especially Savitribai Phule Kishori Samridhi Yojana, Chief Minister Employment Generation Scheme (CMEGP), Pashudhan Vikas Yojana, Sarvajan Pension Yojana, K.C.C, farmers loan waiver scheme, MGNREGA, besides others.

Senior-level officials from the departments would also be visiting with the chief minister so that complaints of the masses are addressed on the spot as had happened during the first phase of the yatra.