Jharkhand ministers unwind as cabinet meets in Biodiversity Park

RANCHI: State tourism minister Amar Kumar Bauri and state water resources minister Chandra Prakash Chaudhary made the most of warm winter afternoon as they strode on a bicycle around the Biodiversity Park in Lalkhatanga, where the state cabinet met outside the walls of Project Building on Sunday.

Close to their heels was state agriculture minister Randhir Kumar Singh as he too pedaled around the park before the state cabinet under chief minister Raghubar Das got down to business as usual. "I cycled after a long time. It was refreshing," Singh said.

Das, who had last week shook his legs at a picnic in Jamshedpur, also appeared in a jovial mood as he broke into a hearty conversation with Bauri and Chaudhary as they alighted from their bicycle.

The usual aura of seriousness over a cabinet meet took backseat as cabinet ministers Saryu Rai, Lois Marandi, Ramchandra Chandravanshi, CP Singh and others arrived an hour before the scheduled meeting and made themselves comfortable, sipping from cups of tea, at the first-floor balcony of the cottage which overlooked the plush greens of the 542-acre estate before heading to the meeting.

The park, situated 20 kilometers from the city, witnessed hectic parleys of senior officers in the administration since morning to ensure smooth conduct of business. The rush of government vehicles, motorcades and heavy deployments of armed policemen gave the serene estate nestled in greens the look of an impregnable fortress. A section of the park, including one of its mainstays, the Japanese oriental garden, was locked away from the throngs of visitors who arrived to soak in the winter sun and make merry with families, friends and relations.

Just as senior officers from the state department of forest, environment and climate change, the custodian of the estate, were beginning to breathe easy, a group of caretakers approached the CM as he headed to the conference room for meeting. Thirty-five care takers of the park stopped Das in his tracks and cried foul over department’s apathy towards them. “We told the CM that we are being promised regularization since 2006. Our daily wages are meagre, and we cannot sustain our families,” Alexander Tirkey, one of the caretakers, said.

The embarrassment did not end for the department there. Villagers from Lalkhatanga and GarKhatanga lined up on both sides of the park with banners claiming they were robbed off their compensation for land acquisition. “We want participation in managing the parking lot, running the food court on the premises and development under CSR funds,” Budhram Oraon, Mukhiya of Lalkhatanga Panchayat, said.