Complainants with grievances about mismanaged public welfare projects, missing basic amenities, land disputes and many more from all over the State gathered at the Chief Minister’s Secretariat, where State’s Revenue and land Reforms Minister Amar Kumar Bauri attended to them during the Janta Darbar here on Wednesday.
Manjulata lakra was at the Janta Darbar to voice the grievances of 30 Assistant Engineers and 100 Junior Engineers working for Jharkhand State Rural Road Development Authority, the executing agency of Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana in the State, without pay for the past nine months.
“150 of us were recruited on contract-basis by JSRRDA as Junior Engineers and Assistant Engineers around two years ago. But we have not received our salaries from November last year nor are our contracts being extended. This has made it difficult for us to manage our households,” lakra told Bauri.
“The problem has already been tabled before Rural Development Minister Neelkanth Singh Munda, but in vain,” she added.
Not every application could be brought to the attention of the Minister and gathered officials during the two and a half hours long Janta Darbar. One such complainant was Mahesh Sahu from Gidhaur block in Chatra.
“I came here to report several problems related to basic amenities in my Block. Doctors have not been appointed in the hospital constructed there. The road to be constructed under the PMGSY has not been completed either. Electric poles have been erected and wires have been connected but there is no transformer powering them,” Sahu said.
land disputes are becoming a common phrase in CM Janta Darbars now, this one being no exception. Octogenarian Jalil Khan from Bariatu locality of the capital came to the public court with his case of land dispute and hope of relief.
He said, “My 55 decimals of family land have been usurped by land mafias. They have put a boundary around the plot, appointed two guards there and even started construction work there, although I have the ownership documents. A case was filed with the Bariatu police station but to no effect.”
Khan’s elder brother, who was also the co-owner of the plot, passed away ten years ago and his son, Feroz Khan expired five years before that.
“The Minister has listened to my pleas. This time, I am absolutely hopeful that justice will prevail,” he further said.
The public court was originally to be jointly chaired by Bauri and Rural Development Minister Neelkanth Singh Munda, but the latter could not attend the Janta Darbar due to some reasons. He will now interact with people on the next Janta Darbar scheduled next Wednesday (August 19) with Urban Development Minister C.P. Singh and Woman and Child Development Minister louis Marandi.