Ranchi Mar 21 PTI Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren told the Assembly on Monday that the process to fill up vacancies in different boards commissions and corporations of the state was underwayWith the speaker yet to appoint a leader of opposition in the House the exercise to fill up these vacancies got delayed Soren statedThe process of filling up these posts has been delayed due to several reasons including non-appointment of the leader of opposition in the House However we are working on it and it will be done soon Soren said during the Question HourHe was replying to a query posed by BJP legislator Biranchi NarayanNarayan during the session said that people of Jharkhand were facing problems with their complaints piling up as several constitutional and statutory institutions and quasi-judicial bodies had been not been functioningMore than 20000 complaints are pending in the absence of a state information commissioner for over two years he saidSimilar is the situation in state human rights commission Lokayukta Jharkhand state electricity regulatory commission and the womens commission the MLA pointed outThe BJP which is the main opposition party in the 81-member House had been demanding that Babulal Marandi a former CM who merged his JVMP with the BJP in 2020 be accorded the status of leader of opposition in the AssemblyHowever the speakers nod on the matter is still awaitedMarandi was on February 24 2020 unanimously elected as leader of the BJP Legislative PartyDuring the day Congress legislator from Barkagaon Amba Prasad raised the issue of displacement of locals in coal mining areasShe demanded that a displacement commission be set up at the earliest for providing benefits of Land Acquisition Act 2013 to those eligible for itOn MLA Bandhu Tirkeys question about filling up vacant posts in the reserved category the chief minister said it was a complex subject but his government would try to sort it outWe will assess the status of backlogs in different departments and steps will be taken accordingly he saidIn response to BJP MLA Narayan Dass demand for a divisional bench of Jharkhand High Court in states second capital Dumka Soren said that he had written to the chief justice in this regardJamshedpur East MLA Saryu Roy on his part alleged that no FIR was registered by the anti-corruption bureau in Meinhardt corruption case due to non-receipt of order from competent authoritySoren had in November 2020 ordered an inquiry by the Anti-Corruption Bureau ACB on allegation of irregularities in the appointment of Singapore based Meinhardt as a consultant for the drainage and sewerage project of Ranchi in 2005 Former chief minister Raghubar Das was then the urban development ministerParliamentary affairs minister Alamgir Alam said an investigation into the matter was going on ACB has received the answers of two people so far after issuing show-cause notices We will ensure that other accused in the case file their replies in the next two months Alam added PTI SAN NAM RMS RMS

Ranchi Feb 28 PTI Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren on Monday announced an ex gratia of Rs 4 lakh each to the next of kin of those who lost their lives in a recent boat capsize in the Barakar river in Jamtara district Several people had gone missing after the boat capsized in the river on February 24 and eight bodies have so far been recovered Replying to a question by BJP legislator from Nirsa Aparna Sengupta in the Assembly Soren said Rs 4 lakh compensation each will be given to the families of people who died in the accident from disaster management department The boat was going to Berigaon in Jamtara from Berbedia in Nirsa According to locals there were 17 people on the boat when the accident took place and five of them were rescued Several leaders of the opposition parties had said the accident could have been avoided if the Barbendia bridge over the river was operational They had said people have been taking the water route to cross the river as the repair works of the bridge have not been completed Soren said the government will soon conduct a feasibility study for construction of a bridge over the river as demanded by the BJP MLA Based on the feasibility study size and budget of the bridge will be decided Soren said Soon after the accident National Disaster Response Force teams from Ranchi and Deoghar were engaged to find out those who had gone missing Notably two pillars of the Barbendia bridge got damaged due to a flood in 2009 In 2014 a high-level team of the state government had visited the site for assessment but no step was taken further Sengupta had said PTI SAN NAM BDC BDC

Ranchi Jan 22 PTI Describing the proposed amendments to IAS Cadre rules as draconian and intended to promote unilateralism Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren on Saturday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to bury those proposalsThe Jharkhand government had received a proposal from the Centre seeking certain amendments in the IAS Cadre Rules 1954 and the state already communicated its disagreement on it Soren said in a strongly-worded letter to ModiIn the meantime we have received another draft of the proposed amendments in the cadre rules of All India Services which prima facie appear to be more draconian than the previous proposalI feel constrained to write this letter to express my strong reservations and apprehensions about these proposed amendments and strongly urge you to bury it at this stage only the letter readHe said that the proposed amendments seem to be contrary to the spirit of cooperative federalism and an attempt to control officers of a state where the political party in power is different from the one at the CentreUndoubtedly this move is likely to further strain the already stressed Centre-State relations the chief minister of Jharkhand ruled by a JMM-led coalition said in the letter to the PMThis will demotivate an officer and create a fear psychosis in the persons mind that will affect performance and efficiency Soren saidIt will certainly cause permanent and irreparable damage to the functioning of bureaucracy in India he saidThe Union government has proposed an amendment to IAS Cadre rules which would enable it to post IAS officers on central deputation bypassing reservations of state governmentsIn the letter Soren claimed that the proposed move has immense potential to be misused for harassment of officers and vendetta politics against the state governmentHe said it is not clear as to what has necessitated this move to bring about these amendments that will force any officer of All India Services working in a state to come on deputation to the Government of India without the consent of the officer concerned and no objection certificate NOC of the state governmentIf the objective is to meet the shortage of officers serving in the affairs of the Government of India then I must say it is not a desirable move he wrote in the letterSoren said a state government gets the services of only three categories of officers - IAS IPS and Indian Forest Service IFS - whereas the Centre gets a huge pool of officers every year from more than 30 odd other All India ServicesCiting an acute shortage of officers in Jharkhand he said currently only 140 IAS officers 65 per cent and 95 IPS officers 64 per cent are working in the state as against the sanctioned strength of 215 and 149 respectivelyThe situation is no better in case of Indian Forest Service officers Soren said without elaboratingMany officers are holding more than one charge and administrative work is suffering due to this acute shortage of officers the letter saidFurther forced removal of officers from this stressed pool will make it extremely difficult for the State Government to discharge its duties as are expected to be performed by any popularly elected government it readSoren said implementation of schemes of the central and state governments will be affected due to absence of an adequate number of officers if the proposals are effectedAn officer will also not be able to give a candid opinion in matters which entail taking sides in sensitive matters of Centre-State disputes which are in plenty in a mineral-rich state like Jharkhand he saidThe Centre should introspect and find out the reasons for the perceptible decline over a couple of the last few years in the number of officers opting to go on central deputation the chief minister said PTI NAM NN NN

Ranchi Jan 22 PTI Describing the proposed amendments to IAS Cadre rules as draconian and intended to promote unilateralism Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren on Saturday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to bury those proposalsThe Jharkhand government had received a proposal from the Centre seeking certain amendments in the IAS Cadre Rules 1954 and the state already communicated its disagreement on it Soren said in a letter to ModiIn the meantime we have received another draft of the proposed amendments in the cadre rules of All India Services which prima facie appear to be more draconian than the previous proposalI feel constrained to write this letter to express my strong reservations and apprehensions about these proposed amendments and strongly urge you to bury it at this stage only the letter readHe said that the proposed amendments seem to be contrary to the spirit of cooperative federalism and an attempt to control officers of a state where the political party in power is different from the one at the CentreThe Union government has proposed an amendment to IAS Cadre rules which would enable it to post IAS officers on central deputation bypassing reservations of state governments PTI NAM NN NN