The New Year may not be same for the people of Jharkhand, especially those living with triple tangle present in the form of corruption at top level, naxal menace and mass level displacements due to mining and industrialisation.

The most important development is coming in the form of converting the legislation—‘Jharkhand Special Court Bill, 2016'— into reality which has a provision for setting up special courts to hear cases against corrupt Government officials.

The legislation, at the same time, empowers the Government to confiscate the illegally amassed property of any official. The Bill also has provisions for refund of the confiscated property if the person in question is exonerated by the Special Court.

“The President has given his assent to the Bill which the Assembly had passed in 2016. The law would come into force by December after that all the illegally amassed properties earned by Government officials would be seized and used for public purposes like opening schools, medical centers etc,” said Chief Minister Raghubar Das on Monday sitting along side Chief Secretary Rajbala Verma where he also termed his Government of being fully accountable and the one working with complete transparency.

Speaking to the media on the sidelines of ‘Jharkhand Mining Show-2017’, the Chief Minister admitted that displacement is a major issue for the people in the mineral rich State. “The problem persists due to the faulty policies of the previous Governments. But now we have a better policy in place to deal with the issue. We have decided to give the displaced persons who have been resettled somewhere else with title of the land. This process would start from December,” said Das.

The Chief Minister also assured the investors, often feeling apprehensive before coming to Jharkhand in the light of widespread naxal activities, especially concentrated in and around most of the mineral studded areas.

“Naxal is no issue here any longer. There are very few operating and those are just hooligans collecting levy and extorting in the name of naxals. We have given the task to the police and administration to eliminate whosoever they are by December,” added the CM.      

He also went on revealing that the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has been told to get hold of the properties accumulated by the outlawed so that their back is broken. “The ED has been told to confiscate all the properties of the people having naxal connection of any kind. These are the properties they have made out of levy they collect from companies and also poor people. The Government is not going to allow them a free run any longer,” said Das.