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Lacklustre show marks Jharkhand foundation day

By K. Balchand

RANCHI Nov. 16. The Jharkhand Chief Minister, Babulal Marandi, might have got the Deputy Prime Minister, L.K. Advani, to grace the second foundation day ceremony of the State but the celebration was limited to the capital, while the Opposition parties reached out to the rural areas with their counter programmes. Mr. Marandi's emphasis seemed more on winning over the confidence of the Central leadership, after having come very close to losing his job following the Bharatiya Janata Party's defeat in the Dumka Lok Sabha byelection. Whether he succeeded in achieving his objective is anybody's guess. Mr. Advani made no promises and praised the Chief Minister's performance in just about three sectors. Even Mr. Marandi's objective seemed limited.

The industrial trade fair had little to offer in the form of potential investments. Some of those who had put up their stalls hastily were upset at the absence of sales tax relaxation as promised earlier. "No sales tax rebate? So what? Forget the fair. Come to our showroom, we have more to offer," screamed an advertisement, obviously hitting back at the Government.

The only saving grace was the offer of the Malaysian Government and the British High Commissioner, who visited the State on the eve of the celebrations. According to the Chief Secretary, G. Krishnan, the Malaysian Government has given a proposal to construct the new capital township spread over 3,000 acres at an estimated cost of Rs. 2000 crores on a built-on- transfer (BOT) basis under which the State Government would be repaying the money in the form of rentals over a period of 30 years. The MoU is likely to be signed within a fortnight.

According to a survey, 11 of the 20 backward districts are in Jharkhand itself. But the Government showed little vision in its "Vision 2010" which was unfolded on Friday. Equally sad was that for all the money that the Government spent in propping itself up, the BJP seemed to give little importance to Bhagvan Birsa Munda, whose birth anniversary fell on the same day. And the Opposition leaders made an issue of it by fanning out to the rural areas and organising functions paying tributes to the tribal leader who raised a banner of revolt against the British. One of them was the JMM president, Shibu Soren, who held a parallel public meeting at Godda — an impressive one at that — commencing his poll campaign for the parliamentary byelection due on December 12. Even some of those considered opposed to the Chief Minister within the BJP and the Samata Party, an ally, went to the place of significance to pay tribute to Munda.

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