Amid talks about Chief Minister Hemant Soren running a minority Government, the Babulal Marandi-led JVM on Wednesday approached Governor Syed Ahmed, seeking him to restrain the State Government from decisions which would ruin the economy of Jharkhand.
Marandi led a party delegation and submitted a memorandum to the Governor that explained decisions of the coalition Govt and its implications. “Departmental Ministers and Secretaries permit schemes way above the sanctioned amount and invite tenders. In this their intention is not to complete the schemes but make money just by managing tenders,” alleged the party. It cited an example of the Road Construction Department headed by the CM. When the department's budgetary provision for 2014-15 is Rs 2,400 crore, its officials, alleged the party, were readying to release tenders costing Rs 3,000 crore.
“It is when the major amount of the budget is going to be spent on repaying loans and completing pending works to ADB and Il&FS. We demand from the Governor that he should act in salvaging the State from going into deep financial mismanagement,” reads the memo.
Notably, the JVM had already extended hand to BJP and AJSU in pulling the coalition Govt down and sought the urgency to call special session of Assembly to conduct a floor test. The party also pointed fingers at the process of appointing power distribution franchise for Ranchi, Jamshedpur and Dhanbad and denounced the Government for dragging its feet over ordering an assessment from PAG before going ahead. “Nine months have passed since the Govt had announced that a PAG probe would be conducted. But nothing has happened so far and it is adamant to dole out franchise to private companies. Similar is case in distributing franchise for rural areas where power supply is pathetic but companies are more interested in collecting money,” said Rajiv Ranjan Prasad, JVM general secretary.
The party also apprised the Governor that by the decision the Government is estimated to lose more than Rs 100 crore every year and sought for a thorough probe. "It is more worrying that the decisions are being taken when the countdown of the Government has started. Motive is clear and most of the public money would go to middlemen and leaders," said Prasad. The delegation also raised dysfunctional hand pumps, electricity problem and other prevailing in the State before the Governor.