DUMKA: Chief minister Hemant Soren inaugurated the Rs 21-crore Deoghar Municipal Corporation (DMC) building on Saturday.
Spread across 89,993sq ft area, the DMC building will be the biggest and the best among all the civic body structures in the state. It will be constructed by the Jharkhand Urban Development Corporation Limited and proposes to set up a fountain, a park and a rainwater harvesting facility among others.
Hemant also laid the foundation stone of an urban drinking water supply project, estimated to cost above Rs 275 crore. Later, he distributed loans and assets to beneficiaries of different government schemes.
Speaking on the occasion, Hemant highlighted the non-payment of Jharkhand’s GST shares by the Centre and accused the latter of having a discriminatory approach towards the state. “The people of this state are going through a tough time because of such a discriminatory attitude. Our patience must not be taken for granted any longer,” he said. He said the Centre should extend cooperation or the entire country would plunge into darkness if Jharkhand starts blocking coal lifting from the state to other places.
The chief minister also talked about the recent auto-debit of over Rs 1,400 crore by the Centre from the state’s RBI account to pay outstanding dues to the Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC). He said those dues were accrued during the previous BJP regime and the Narendra Modi government at the Centre purposely did not take up the matter then.
Hemant was accompanied by agriculture minister Badal Patralekh on his visit to the temple town and paid his respects at the Baidyanath Dham temple.