A war of words erupted between Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren and state BJP president Babulal Marandi after the central government denied owing the state Rs 1.36 lakh crore in coal royalties.
Responding to a question by Purnia MP Pappu Yadav, Union Finance Minister Pankaj Chaudhary said there is no discrimination in allocation of funds to the states and clarified that the Center does not owe anything to Jharkhand.
Meanwhile, the Jharkhand government has reportedly initiated legal action to recover Rs 1.36 lakh crores from the Centre’s coal dues, according to a news agency. The PTI.
Babulal Marandi dismissed the claims made by the Jharkhand government as “baseless and misleading” and demanded that the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) government present relevant documents to prove its claims before the public.
“If JMM has concrete evidence about this figure, they should put it before the public with documents and complete facts. JMM should clarify what this money is for? Since when is it pending and under what circumstances is this claim made?” said Marandi in a post written to X in Hindi.
He also said that Hemant Soren should focus on the “real problems of Jharkhand” instead of blaming the central government.
“This game of misleading the people of Jharkhand by making baseless allegations without proof should end now. The false promises of giving Rs 2500 per month to women, Rs 3200 per quintal of paddy to farmers and jobs to the youth have been exposed. You can hide your failure by making baseless allegations about the central government, ” he says in this position.
“Politics of misleading the public will not benefit Jharkhand. Learn to do politics of innocence with complete facts and evidence,” the BJP leader added.
Responding to the BJP leader’s claim, Soren said Jharkhand’s demands were “baseless”.
“This is our right, our hard earned money. Your opposition to the rights of Jharkhandis is really sad. When you should use the full power of your organization to stand with us – stand against it,” he tweeted.
The Chief Minister said that Jharkhand will “definitely demand” its rights, “because this money is the right of every Jharkhandi”.
Marandi responded to the Chief Minister saying “the public has a right to know the truth about Jharkhand’s claim”.
He said the Jharkhand government should answer questions about the claim.
“This balance is from which years and which schemes/projects? What is the basis of the amount of Rs 1.36 lakh crore? How much money was received during the UPA regime and when Shibu Soren was the Coal Minister?” he said to X.
“Given Jharkhand’s history of corruption, the public wants to know everything. Put the relevant documents and facts in front clearly and speak,” he said.
The BJP leader added, “By raising the issue of dues, are you deliberately preparing a basis to blame others for failing to pay the dues under the Mainiya Samman Yojana?”
Source link