Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren, who heads a JMM-Congress-RJD alliance government in the state, has claimed that the Opposition BJP had been attempting to topple his government since its formation on December 29, 2019.

Addressing the 24th foundation day of the state at Morabadi Ground in Ranchi on Wednesday, Soren said: “Within two hours of the formation of our government, the Opposition leaders have been busy in scheming to topple our government. In December, our government will complete four years.”

Soren has faced Enforcement Directorate summons over money-laundering and office-of-profit allegations allegedly orchestrated by the BJP-led central government.

Taking a dig at the erstwhile BJP governments in the state, Soren said: “During earlier governments, we used to see people dying of starvation despite having ration cards. Lakhs of ration cards were deleted. However, we tried to give ration card benefits to nearly 20 lakh extra beneficiaries.”

He also accused the Centre of “step-motherly” treatment to non-BJP ruled states.

“Unfortunately, the Centre has been meting out a step-motherly treatment towards those states which do not have double-engine sarkar (a term used by the BJP
leaders for having governments at both the Centre and state). Our demands for providing houses for the rural homeless under the Prime Minister’s housing scheme were denied and we had to provide houses under state government’s Abua Awas Yojana,” Soren said.

During a review of the states affected by Left Wing Extremism earlier this year, Soren had informed Union home minister Amit Shah that the Union rural development ministry was not taking any positive decision on giving benefits of the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) to eligible beneficiaries of the state despite repeated requests.

Soren had in February this year met Union rural development and panchayati raj minister Giriraj Singh in New Delhi and requested him to sanction 8.37 lakh houses in the state under PMAY-rural for families registered on the Awas Plus portal.

The chief minister had claimed to have informed Singh that all registered beneficiaries were poor and in need of a dwelling.

On Wednesday, Soren and Jharkhand governor C.P. Radhakrishnan launched the third phase of “Sarkar Aapki Yojana, Aapki Sarkar, Aapke Dwar”.

On the occasion, around 229 schemes worth Rs 1,714.44 crore were inaugurated and foundation stones were laid for 677 schemes worth Rs 5,328.30 crore.

The government launched Jharkhand Start-up Policy 2023, Jharkhand MSME Promotion Policy 2023, Jharkhand Export Policy 2023 and Jharkhand IT, Data Center and BPO Investment Promotion Policy 2023, Abua Awas Yojana (housing scheme for rural homeless) and Mukhyamantri Gram Gaadi Yojana (rural bus scheme).

Financial assistance amounting to Rs 261 crore was distributed among 5,55,652 adolescent girls for 2023-24 under the Savitri Bai Phule Kishori Samriddhi Yojana.