Jharkhand, which ranks third in the country in terms of human fatalities because of elephant attack, will be raising ex-gratia compensation for the victim’s family.

State transport and tribal welfare minister Champai Soren, replying to a question by Kolebira Congress MLA Naman Vixal Kongari in the Assembly on Tuesday, said that the forest department has already submitted a proposal to increase the compensation amount for death due to elephant attack.

“The forest department has proposed to increase the amount from the existing Rs 4 lakh to Rs 6.5 lakh. At present compensation is paid under the provision of 2017. An amount of Rs 119.736 lakh has so far been paid in the financial year 2021-22,” said Soren.

The Kolebira MLA had threatened to stage an agitation in front of forest department office in Ranchi if the forest department does not take steps to control elephants that after being separated from their herds are attacking humans in Simdega district and claimed that the compensation of forest department is too low.

As per data furnished by the Union forest ministry, Jharkhand reported 74 deaths due to elephant attacks in 2020-21 while Odisha led the chart with 93 deaths followed by Assam (91). Bengal recorded 47 such deaths and there were 462 deaths in total across the country.

In 2019-20 too, Jharkhand with 84 deaths stood at third position in human casualties while Odisha (117) and Bengal (116) were at first and second position respectively. In 2019-20, 585 people were killed by wild elephants.

In a pleasant development for sports lovers, Jharkhand sports minister Hafizul Hassan Ansari announced in the Assembly that the government will construct stadiums across all the 81 Assembly constituencies of the state.

“The construction of stadiums will be done on the recommendation of the MLAs,” said Ansari.

Hafizul Hassan Ansari, who also holds the tourism portfolio in response to a query, said that the depth of waterfalls in the state shall not exceed five feet.

“The government has taken this decision in view of the security of tourists. The government would make elaborate security arrangements at all the waterfalls and iron barricading will also be done in the waterfalls,” said Ansari.

Significantly, there have been cases of drowning in waterfalls especially near Ranchi.

The state parliamentary affairs minister Alamgir Alam assured that policemen in the state would soon get a compensation leave of 20 days.

“A home department letter has come in January 2021 and the state government is serious on implementing it,” said Alam in response to a calling attention motion put forward by CPI-ML MLA Vinod Singh.

Vinod Singh had said that 75,000 policemen of the state are agitating as their compensation leave of 20 days has been stopped. He also alleged that uniform allowance in the state is only Rs 4,000, while in Bihar it is 10,000. Similarly ration allowance is Rs 2,000, while in Bihar 6,000.

The CAG on Tuesday tabled its audit report on district hospital outcomes in Jharkhand for the year ended March 2019 and cited instances of district hospitals in Ranchi remaining non-functional even after 12 years of commencement of construction works (in 2007). The report also showed several instances of stalling of construction works of hospitals due to corruption charges and due to non-procurement of equipment.

The CAG recommended that the department should review all incomplete hospital buildings and address the bottlenecks causing delay.

The report also stated drug procurement process in state marred by non-adherence to stipulated procedures and recommends for clear timelines for procurement of drugs and ensure adherence to timelines. It also recommended availability of essential radiological and pathological equipments at district hospitals.

In other news...

Chief minister Hemant Soren, along with Speaker Rabindra Nath Mahato, celebrates Holi outside the Assembly in Ranchi on Tuesday. Manob Chowdhary