The last session of third Jharkhand Vidhan Sabha came to an end on Wednesday with the legislators admitting that the requisite developmental works were not undertaken in the last five years.
The State witnessed three governments-led by Shibu Soren, Arjun Munda and Hemant Soren and two spells of the President’s rule for 277 days-in the last five years. The third Assembly was chaired by two successive Speakers-CP Singh and Shashank Shekher Bhokta-during its five-year term. The State has also seen at least 23 Ministers in the last five years who could not even been able to complete 11 months of their tenure. The total number of ministers in three governments formed in last five years comes to 30.
Blaming the hung Assembly for the sordid state of affairs, every political party passed the buck for not having been efficient during its tenure. “This government has not a single thing which could be counted as an achievement for the government; it only took the state down on the path of underdevelopment,” said former Speaker CP Singh. “There has been mixed moments of both joy and agony which only could be felt and cannot be described in words,” he added.
When asked to give some instances when his relation as a speaker with the present Hemant Soren government seemed to be stressful, Singh claimed that he belied the apprehensions raised by the ruling coalition.
“They thought that I will play politics during the voting on confidence motion moved by Hemant Soren. But I dealt with the matter very patiently and their apprehensions were proved to be baseless and I created a history by conducting the voting for the government,” added Singh. According to Singh, there is no scope of any wrongdoing by a Speaker as he leaves behind his friends and foes the moment he sits on the chair.
Former Chief Minister Arjun Munda, however, said that since this is the last day of the monsoon session of the present Assembly, he tried to raise questions on various issues and also suggested solutions for them. “It is a natural trend that anything which comes to an end brings new hope for the future. I wish a bright future for the State. It should become a productive state with better human resources,” said Munda.
Commenting on the third Assembly, Munda said that several political upheavals took place in the political arena of Jharkhand but having strong positive impacts of constitutional values in the state, people reposed their faith in BJP during the last Parliamentary elections,” said Munda. Speaker Shashank Shekher Bhokta in his speech called it a sentimental moment and thanked the legislators for extending their support in running the Assembly. “We may not meet again in the present structure of the house but I would say that party line in the house cannot determine the line of hearts of the legislators,” Bhokta said. The house will continue on its path as a new beginning is awaited, he added.
Chief Minister Hemant Soren on the other hand, calling himself a student of Assembly as an MlA, Minister and Chief Minister said that it will be a great lesson for him in the coming days. “I am thankful to all and hope that all of you get elected again in the next Assmbly; some of the issues could not be taken up in the Assembly which I hope will definitely be taken in future,” said Soren.
Soren added that being a first timer in the Assembly he saw several political upheavals in the Assembly which may prove to be a great lesson for him for his rest of his life. Similarly, blaming the governments in power Bagodar MlA Binod Kumar Singh maintained that one should not have expectations from the government which cannot even fulfill the assurances promised to members in the house. “Nothing was done which ought to have been done in the House,” said the Bagodar MlA.