Jharkhand minister boycotts health camp organised by Centre as CM not invited

KHUNTI: Jharkhand Health Minister Banna Gupta on Sunday boycotted a one-day mega health camp organised by the Union Tribal Affairs Ministry in Khunti district as Chief Minister Hemant Soren was not invited to the programme.

Gupta went to the venue at Birsa College Ground in Khunti town after receiving an invitation from the deputy commissioner but did not go up to the dais and returned without attending the programme upon finding that Soren's name was not on the list of invitees.

Union Tribal Affairs Minister Arjun Munda was the chief guest of the event.

Governor Ramesh Bais had also attended the programme.

"Organisers had put up my poster on the dais but I was pained to see that neither was our CM invited nor was his poster displayed. Ours is an elected government and Hemant Soren is our leader. I can not tolerate any insult to him. Omitting the CM is tantamount to insulting the state," Gupta told PTI.

While wholeheartedly welcoming such mega health camps for the benefit of the poor people, Gupta, however, alleged that the Centre was attempting to derive political mileage out of such programmes.

"In a democratic setup, differences in opinion between the Centre and the state is not new but expressing hatred or insulting anyone on the pretext of that is not acceptable," he said.

Khunti Deputy Commissioner Shashi Ranjan said the district administration was only responsible for law and order as over 50,000 tribals from across the district were scheduled to take part in it.

"The invitations for the event were sent by the Union Tribal Affairs Ministry, and not by the district administration," he added.