Jharkhand Government to increase ex-gratia for elephant attack victims

Rural bus transport service to resume services in Jharkhand 

Ranchi, March 15: State transport and tribal welfare minister, Champai Soren replying to a question by Kolebira Congress MLA Naman Vixal Kongari during the ongoing budget session of the Vidhan Sabha on Tuesday said that the forest department has already submitted a proposal to increase the compensation amount for death due to elephant attack.

“The forest department has proposed to increase the amount from the existing Rs 4 lakh to Rs 6.5 lakh. At present compensation is paid under the provision of 2017. An amount of Rs 119.736 lakh has so far been paid in the financial year 2021-22,” said Soren.

The Kolebira MLA had threatened to stage an agitation in front of forest department office in Ranchi if the forest department does not take steps to control elephants who after being separated from their herds are attacking humans in Simdega district and claimed that the compensation of forest department is too low.

The State government in the assembly today expressed its commitment to connect the rural areas of Jharkhand with cities by starting rural bus transport services.

Transport minister Champai Soren expressed the commitment in the assembly which passed the budget of Rs 261.61 crore of his department after a two-hour-long debate on the cut motion brought by BJP legislator Naveen Jaiswal.

Soren said the service is required as villages of Jharkhand situated in forest and hilly areas are inaccessible. Until a transport facility is provided to allow villagers to cities and city residents to village it is difficult to think about the development of rural people for which the government has been formed.

The transport minister said apart from providing bus services connecting villages with cities, the plan has also been chalked out to ensure smooth movement of every section of people in the cities. For this, he said the government has planned two flyovers in the Jharkhand capital, where nothing was done to ease traffic congestion during the rule of BJP-led governments.

Expressing his concern over the deaths due to incidents of ‘hit and run’, he said the government apart from paying attention to proper transportation has also provided funds for the family members of road accident victims.

Earlier, during the debate legislators from different political groups gave suggestions for improvement of transport and urban infrastructure in the state.

JMM legislator Sudivya Kumar Sonu demanded a probe into scams taking place with the involvement of the urban development department during the BJP rule before explaining how Harmu rivulet was converted into a drain after the expenditure of Rs 84 crore from the public exchequer.

BJP legislator Raj Sinha before pulling up the government for its poor performance suggested one-time tax collection policy to regularize old vehicles on which tax was not paid for a long time and provision to pay floral tribute on the statues of leaders established at different roundabouts of the state. He also suggested paying attention to reducing pollution levels and improving infrastructure for proper movement of buses.

Jharkhand Education Minister Jagarnath Mahto on Tuesday assured that the government would consider taking care of the interest of the teaching staff of the schools of Jharkhand.

During the budget session of the assembly, Mahgama MLA Dipika Pandey Singh and Poraiyahat MLA Pradeep Yadav raised two different issues related to the condition of teachers of schools. Dipika Pandey Singh drew the attention of the government that the teachers in Jharkhand are not getting the benefit of the Modified Assured Career Progression Scheme (MACPS) whereas many other states have implemented this.

Pradeep Yadav, on the other hand, raised the issue of contractual teachers of 200 Kasturba Schools and 57 Girls’ schools in Jharkhand. He said that these teachers have offered praiseworthy. He said that girls of Kasturba Schools have academically performed well for which these teachers must be thanked.

Pradeep Yadav said that these teachers should be given preference in the teachers’ recruitments. He said that since post-graduation has been mentioned as an essential minimum qualification, these contractual teachers will not get the opportunity. The Minister assured to look into this matter.