State BJP will gather at the Jharkhand secretariat on Tuesday to protest against the Hemant Soren government’s failure to tackle unemployment, corruption and the alleged deteriorating law and order situation in the State. Thousands of workers of the saffron party from across Jharkhand will assemble at different grounds of the city and then march towards the state secretariat building at around 11 am, BJP state president Deepak Prakash said on Monday.
The agitation will be one of the one of the biggest that Jharkhand has seen, he claimed. The ruling JMM has, however, termed BJP's proposed protest as a ''political gimmick''.
An insider said apart from targeting the state government, the programme is also intended to check the preparedness of the party to contest forthcoming parliamentary and assembly elections at the time when the BJP is in the line of fire of all those who are not happy with Prime Minister Modi’s style of development and tough stand against corruption and anti-national forces.
BJP State president Deepak Prakash said that party workers will start assembling at Prabhat Tara Maidan in Dhurwa and finally leave the venue at 11.30am to reach the secretariat via DAV School and Golchakkar.
The BJP chief claimed that the party has chosen a secretariat for the protest march as it is a place where the chief minister makes wrong decisions and bureaucrats follow them. He claimed that Jharkhand's unemployment rate is 14.3 per cent, which is double the national average of 7.20%. The JMM, Congress, RJD-led UPA government had promised five lakh jobs every year in its manifesto but it has provided only 537 jobs in the past three years.
''There are 3.27 lakh vacant government posts but the Mahagathbandhan government has no intention to provide jobs to the youths of the state, who are now migrating to other places for employment," Prakash said.
The BJP leader also claimed that apart from the failure of the government to provide employment opportunities to youth the government has failed to check the law and order situation in the State. Disclosing the figures, the BJP leader said as many as 1,34,742 cases of criminal offences have been registered during the regime of Hemant Soren government. He also talked about the rise in Naxal activities in the State.
Sources said that the fresh agitation of BJP is seen as preparation of BJP for general election and assembly election next year. The BJP chief has claimed that around 1 lakh people will assemble in protest march.
He said around one lakh party workers are reaching here to lay siege to Project Bhawan secretariat in Dhurwa and give the State government a message that the BJP is not going to behave like a ‘mute spectator’ to the government’s wrong policies.
Meanwhile, the district administration has made elaborate security arrangements for the BJP protest march. Adequate security personnel will be deployed on route to the secretariat so as to tackle any situation.