Days after Chief Minister Hemant Soren highlighted the poor condition of State’s treasury and blamed the former Raghubar Das-led Government for emptying the coffers, Finance Minister in his Cabinet Dr. Rameshwar Oraon has said that the lack of funds in the exchequer will not be a stumbling block for any of the Government’s schemes and works for the welfare of Jharkhand. However, the ‘useless’ schemes will have to stop, he added.
“We will not compromise with any of the Government schemes. However, the unnecessary expenditures will be cut down. The schemes that are useful will continue, but the schemes that are useless and cause unwanted burden on the exchequer will be stopped,” Oraon told this newspaper. He, however, did not specify as to which schemes he was referring to as useless. “You will get to know about it when we table the budget,” added the former IPS officer turned politician.
Oraon took to microblogging website Twitter on Saturday to share his views on the situation and claimed that unlike the former Government, the current Government will not drain the exchequer’s money extravagantly. “The former Government wasted a lot of money in unnecessary showbiz. This will not happen in our Government,” he said.
He also shared a cutout of a vernacular daily stating that most of the ongoing schemes will continue and the Government will arrange for funds to run all the necessary programmes. “We will spend on the right areas. Development works and welfare schemes will not stop,” said Oraon.
Chief Minister Hemant Soren had on Wednesday said that the State’s treasury was nearly empty and that the Government does not even have sufficient funds to pay salaries. “The former Government left no stone unturned in looting the State’s treasury. The money in State’s coffers also belongs to the tax payers, the backward and tribals. We will make sure that the crisis is addressed soon,” Soren had said during an event.
The Government held several investors’ summits and road shows under the leadership of former Chief Minister Raghubar Das. Opposition parties accused the Government of splurging tax payer’s money in ‘unwanted showbiz’ and also sought probe into the various business summits and road shows organised to lure investors. The former Government held at least five domestic and three international roadshows to lure investors to Jharkhand. In India, then chief minister Das and his team of delegates from the state attended road shows in Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Kolkata and New Delhi. The delegates visited San Francisco in the United States of America, and Japan and Singapore to hold international road shows.
Oraon on Saturday said that the Government will come up with ways to boost the revenue of the State. However, he refused to share the plans he has in his mind to increase the revenue claiming that it was too early to disclose the Government’s plans to revive the funds in the State treasury.