Ranchi: Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren has written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in which he has condemned the act of deduction of Rs 1417 crore from the account of the state with the RBI in connection with the pending payment of DVC.
He said that the deduction had been made as per the three-party agreement but he was hurt by the act as in the present circumstances the Government of India should not have deducted the money. He said that the agreement was inked under a normal situation but the implementation of the provisions of the act amid the Coronavirus crisis in the first impression appears to be unconstitutional, immoral and an attack on the federal structure of the country.
He said that in the history of Independent India this was the second occasion when such type of deduction has been made. Hemant Soren said that other states have more dues than Jharkhand which only owed just Rs 5500 crore which has been deducted from the account of a tribal, dalit and minorities dominated state like Jharkhand.
He said that his government had started functioning in January 2020 and at that time the pending due was Rs 1313 crore and despite that a sum of Rs 741 crore was paid. He said that the pending due of Rs 5514 crore was accumulated during the five years rule of the BJP government but the provisions of the agreement were not enforced at that time.
The Chief Minister said that he is of the view that this issue can be solved when the Union Coal Ministry is made a party to the agreement as than by keeping into account the money being levied in lieu of works of Coal PSUs can be taken into account before making an assessment of the amount to be paid by the state government.
The Chief Minister said that officials of the state government had held a meeting with the Secretary of the Union power ministry where a detailed discussion was held over the loan to be given under the Aatam Nirbhar Bharat Abhiyaan and the issue is currently pending before the state cabinet however the letter of the power ministry is an attempt that was aimed at forcing the state government to accept the loan which was unacceptable.
He urged the Prime Minister to cancel the deduction and give the funds back to the state and also direct the power department not to commit such acts in future amid the pandemic and also demanded that Coal Ministry be made a fourth party to the agreement.
The Chief Minister through the letter also requested the Prime Minister to give time so that he along with his few cabinet colleagues could brief him over the entire matter.