When Jharkhand turned sixteen, Chief Minister Raghubar Das turned a poet!
His couplets written, according to him, only last night, converged the gloom of past, way forward and glimpses of a brighter future into one for the State that had taken birth sitting prettily on immense possibilities and aspirations on November 15, 2000.
In his address, the Chief Minister sought help of one and all by rising above petty political gains, and also urged them to refrain from hindering each other’s way out of sheer personal grudges and sense of hatred.
“…Nafrat nahi pyar ka deep jalana hoga….janglon ke andheron me shola ka josh hai…yauwan abhi baki hai,” were some of the lines of the CM who went on adding, “The biggest challenge before me is how to use the opportunity at hand for the welfare of the poor people of the State.”
Speaking at the gala event organised to commemorate the State’s 17th foundation day at Morhabadi on Tuesday, the CM also outlined some of the reasons why Jharkhand lagged behind so far since its separation happened in the name of speedy development.
“What I believe that the State has all the potentials like human and mineral resources to grow but honesty has not been there. We lack in keeping the State interest above party politics. We should learn from the mistakes.
We all have to work together and not come in the way of each other. I appeal to everyone to work in tandem for the wellbeing of the State. Samar chhor, samrasta ki raah chalen (let’s move with harmony leaving behind bitter fight),” said the CM.
The expression holds significance as most of the Opposition party leaders chose not to attend the celebrations, except ex-Chief Minister Madhu Koda. Importantly, alliance partner in the Government, AJSU party, also gave a miss to the occasion.
The CM, on the occasion, also hinted towards obstacles being presented before the Government, especially for the proposed amendments in the CNT and SPT Acts and formulation of domicile policy. “There are some who are trying to put me in the dock. But I have not done anything wrong. Whatever I have done is in the right direction and in the interest of the State,” said the CM counting on the steps such as Yojna Banao Abhiyan, dova construction, schools and rural electrification taken up.
He also stressed that citizens should get their constitutional rights and the policies should be made for the last man in the queue. “We have to work for skilling the people as our target is to eliminate poverty. We are also working to bring investment and develop infrastructure for that in the State. Processes for that have been eased out. Still, we have to travel a long way,” added the Chief Minister, who also thanked citizens for supporting Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s decision of demonetization of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes.
Highlighting some of the programmes in the pipeline, Chief Secretary Rajbala Verma also talked about the policies meant for IT, Textile, Energy and Industry in place.
“The State could not progress as expected but now we have desired policies with us.
Also, different parks for food processing, plastic, IT etc are coming up. We are going to open 100 new colleges in three years’ time and 40 degree and engineering colleges have been approved. All the districts are going to have mega skill
training centers while work for the three medical colleges would commence in December,” said the CS.
She also said that the State has attained self-dependence in paddy seed generation through ‘beej grams’ and need not to purchase any seed for the kharif crop from next year. One lakh ‘Sakhi mandals’ are also coming up to link women with cottage industries.