Ranchi: Chief minister Hemant Soren on Sunday said the journey for Jharkhand in 2020 was riddled with tussles between the Centre and the state and claimed that the Union government is harassing all non-BJP ruled states in some way or the other. He said it is time to leave them behind and look beyond for the state’s prosperity.
On the eve of the first anniversary of his Mahagathbandhan government, Soren said his administration is looking forward for a good relationship with the Centre but said Jharkhand needs to look at other resources than mines for its prosperity.
In an interaction with TOI at his official residence on Sunday, the 45-year-old JMM scion spoke at length about his alliance government’s achievements, challenges and priorities as it completes one year on Tuesday. He conceded that since assuming office in the fag end of 2019, this year was bumpy, including the battle to save Jharkhand from the Covid-19 pandemic without “much help from the Centre”. The chief minister, however, said his administration had adopted a road less taken to put Jharkhand on the accelerator to development for 2021.
Soren said, “We have taken lessons from the challenges we faced in the one year we are in office. In the coming year, our focus is to look beyond mines and minerals to make Jharkhand a self-reliant state in the long run. We are not opposed to mining, but we just don’t want to focus solely on it for our resources.”
He argued, “There are many states in the country today which are considered developed even without mines. Why can’t we also explore other resources like the tourism sector, the biodiversity assets and the likes, which we have plenty, for prosperity? Dependence on mining has led to a host of infamy for us (state) without any genuine profits or progress on the ground. I remember speaking to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, when he visited Jharkhand for the first time after assuming office, about the state's tourism potential. For us, the year ahead will be to look beyond the mines to be self-sufficient,” he stressed.
Soren, who championed many firsts to defuse flashpoints with the Centre and helped the state’s migrant workers, was also arguably the most vocal leader to speak up for worker and tribal rights during the peak of lockdown and when the country faced a migrant crisis.
Under his leadership, Jharkhand became the first state to host a Shramik Special Train in May and brought over 1,200 stranded workers back from Telangana. It was also the first state to airlift labourers from Leh and bring them back to their homes in Santhal Pargana. In the following months, over five lakh labourers were brought back on trains, flights and buses.