Parties slam Plan panel’s BPL status report
VIJAY DEO JHA
- THURSDAY, 22 SEPTEMBER 2011
- | RANCHI
Friday, September 23, 2011
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But the States like Jharkhand having shocking statistics of poverty, the political class has strongly opposed the very redefining of the BPL. The Congress chose a close guard language to seek a review while the BJP painted the Congress- led UPA Government as anti-people and anti-poor.
“Report and its recommendations are yet to be accepted by the Central Government. It is not final we have been told by the Central leadership. So there is no cause of concern,” State Congress spokesperson Sailesh Sinha said. Wary about the Congress getting anti-poor tag everyday Sinha accepted the criteria set by the Commission was illogical.
Former Finance Minister and BJP MP Yahswant Sinha termed it a fine act to blur the line between poor and peer. “The Government is removing poverty in the papers by changing its definition. It has become obvious now that the Government considers poor as a liability and doesn’t want to spare resources for their upliftment,” he said.
He refused to believe Congress and the Government confused over the BPL issue. “The Government has always refused to accept actual figure of the BPL families in the country even if after the reports of various commissions appointed by the Government,” he said.
The Left Front has too joined the chorus. MLA Vinod Singh of the CPI (ML) and Arup Chatterjee of the Marxist Coordination Committee registered their strong opposition. “Well, policymakers should be given `32 per day as sustenance cost and than ask them their experience of hardship. Only then they will know poor and their pain,” Chatterjee said.
JVM Chief and MP Babulal Marandi deployed three adjectives ‘cruel’, ‘casual’, and ‘sad’, to thrash the Centre and the Commission. “It would have been good on the part of the Government to take some radical steps to end poverty but not by this way. People are getting alienated and they are one who to face the burnt of price hike. Pittance has been pressed into the whole discourse to redefine poverty three times less than minimum wage,” he said.
Vijay Deo Jha
Pressure politics of disgruntled JMM and AJSU MLAs to secure boards/corporations in Jharkhand is gaining ground since the State Government is reported to have asked various departments to furnish details of boards/corporations where the posts of chairpersons are lying vacant.
There are around 40 board/corporations out of which around 36 are waiting for the appointment of a chairperson. The exercise has taken place after the disgruntled MLAs formed a solid coalition to push their interest. Just a week before the Monsoon Session of the Assembly in August, these MLAs had set a deadline before their respective party chiefs to settle the matter without delay and even met Chief Minister Arjun Munda in this regard.
Sources in the Government confided that departmental secretaries have been asked to submit details of the board/corporation for the likely appointment of chairpersons. But the group has now come up with a fresh demand to replace existing chairpersons of the remaining boards and corporations.
“What is the logic behind keeping a person as a chairperson for a decade, why Government appointed an IAS as the chairperson of the State Pollution Control Board,” JMM MLA Sita Soren asked.
Keeping a person for a decade, lady Soren did not refer Jharkhand Khadi board chairperson Jainandu, but she meant so. Janinadu is the man who has charisma on his side to keep bosses of political parties and Chief Ministers in good humour, an essential maneuvering mantra that kept him at the helm of affairs despite change of Governments.
But the coalition partners are trembling with the trouble in deciding shares in the board/corporation, especially plum one. For instance both JMM and the BJP are eying for State Pollution Control Board, Jharkhand State Mineral Development Corporation Limited, Adityapur Industrial Area Development Authority and others.
The AJSU is also keen for Pollution Control besides State Housing Board. There is at least seven to eight such boards/corporations like Mineral Area Development Authority, Ranchi Industrial Area Development Authority, Jharkhand State Mineral Development Corporation, Jharkhand State Agriculture Marketing Board, State Housing Board, Jharkhand Hill Area Lift Irrigation Corporation, Tenughat Vidyut Nigam Ltd etc which are in the wish-list of every party.
The problem does not end with a convincing and agreeing sharing formula that is under discussion right now. Last time when similar voices were raised the Government had appointed JMM MLA Seshank Sekhar Bhokta and BJP MLA Barkuwar Gagarai to find the number of board/corporations. But the swelling number of competing clamour in the JMM forced the party chief Shibu Soren to shelve the matter for the time being. “Every MLA of the JMM wanted board and corporation as compensation for not getting ministerial berth… everybody wanted plum board… and beside them there is a long queue of party leaders who persuaded for their rehabilitation. It was not easy. Soren took an easy way to defer it,” a senior party MLA said.
Like the JMM, the AJSU is also humming with dissonance. Nevertheless, the aspirants in the BJP including its MLAs have not gone overboard in the JMM and AJSU fashion but party insiders sounded enough caution on this count.
“The party does not consist only of MLAs. There are competent and dedicated people who have served the party whom you cannot ignore.” The only difference is it is an open rebellion in the JMM and AJSU while it is a controlled epidemic in the BJP,” he said.