Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren will kick off the second phase of the ‘Khatiyani Johar Yatra’ in areas that recently witnessed heightened activities from the Opposition BJP.

The JMM-Congress-RJD combine will jointly take out the yatra covering six districts — Koderma, Giridih, Simdega, West Singhbhum, Saraikela-Kharswan and East Singhbhum — in the second phase, which would start from January 17 and conclude on January 31.

The yatra has been planned to touch Giridih which was in the news this month for the protest over declaring Parasnath Hill as a tourist place and Chaibasa where Union home minister Amit Shah launched the party’s 2024 Lok Sabha campaign on January 7.

“Hemant ji will be extensively meeting people at Giridih to gauge the mindset following the recent controversy over Parasnath Hill which was notified as a tourist place by the Centre in August 2019 and after a protest by the Jain community and a letter by the chief minister, the Centre stayed the decision on January 5. There have been attempts by some tribal leaders supported by BJP to create dissent among tribal people over the Hills. The meetings would be crucial to put to rest all such dissent,” said a senior JMM leader based in Giridih.

A few days ago tribals thronged Parasnath Hills demanding that the hills be declared as their religious place as they consider it as ‘Marang Buru’ (Mountain God). They had an apprehension that after being declared as a Jain pilgrim site they would be prohibited from performing their animal sacrifice rituals on a particular spot in the hills.

Meanwhile, on January 7 in Chaibasa, Amit Shah addressing a rally had termed Hemant as anti-tribals and failing to protect tribal women from infiltrators who marry them forcibly and grab their lands in Santhal Pargana. The Union minister had even said about BJP leader Babulal Marandi demanding to change the Hemant Soren government, a statement which validated Hemant Soren’s and JMM leaders’ claims of BJP trying to overthrow their majority government in Jharkhand.

The first phase of the Khatiyani Johar Yatra had begun in Garhwa on December 8 and covered Palamau, Gumla, Lohardaga, and Godda and ended at Deoghar on December 16. 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.

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

The chief minister had laid 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 and 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.

Johar Haat in steel city

Jamshedpur: Tribal entrepreneurs in arts, crafts and cuisines from across the country will get a permanent space for a week every month in Jamshedpur at ‘Johar Haat’. This is the first such initiative in Jharkhand.

Steel major Tata Steel’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) arm Tata Steel Foundation (TSF) launched the JoharHaat at Kadma in Jamshedpur on Saturday.

The Haat started with eight shops, two displaying tribal cuisines and six displaying arts and crafts from Bengal, Odisha, Jharkhand and Arunachal Pradesh and on the very first day had a footfall touching 200.

ANIMESH BISOEE