Chief Minister Hemant Soren will complete his Cabinet expansion after January 15 as Chief Minister is in Delhi giving final touches to his Ministry.
Sources said that after the Cabinet expansion Soren Government in phasewise will go for implementing the poll promises of alliance partners. State Congress president and one of the Ministers in Soren Cabinet, Rameshwar Oraon said, “Congress believes in delivering its promises unlike the jumlebaz BJP. We will fullfil all promises that the party or alliance partners made in its manifesto.”
Oraon, a former IPS officer, claimed that starting with this the party will first increase the Minimum Support Price (MSP) of paddy. At present the MSP of paddy is Rs 1,850 per quintal, while the Congress and JMM in their manifesto had promised to increase the MSP upto Rs 2,500 per quintal. The Congress like Chhattisgarh Government had promised to increase the MSP upto Rs 2,500 per quintal, while the JMM had promised to increase the MSP from Rs 2,300 to Rs 2,700 per quintal.
Oraon said, “Apart from increasing the MSP the other concern for Government is that people are reluctant to sell their paddy in Primary Agricultural Credit Society (PACS) due to lots of inconvenience at PACS. The Government will ensure that the farmers don’t face any type of difficulties while selling their produce in PACS.”
The Congress president also claimed that the Government is also studying the mechanism under which farmers’ loan will be waived. Waiving farmers loan was one the poll promises of both Congress and BJP.
Senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi during his election campaign in Jharkhand had promised to waive farmers’ loan like the Chhattisgarh Government. The Bhupesh Bhagel Government in Chhattisgarh had waived small and medium loans of farmers.
Apart from increasing the MSP and waiving farmers loans, the other things which are in pipeline of Soren Government includes increasing reservation for Other Backward Caste (OBC) — numerically stronger in tribal State Jharkhand.
In election all major political parties from national to regional level have promised to increase OBC quota in their manifesto. The Congress had vowed to increase OBC reservation limit to 27 per cent from existing 14 per cent.The Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), had pledged to provide 67 per cent reservation to STs, OBCs and SCs. The Congress leader said, “The Government will implement these issues with full preparations so that it doesn’t face any legal hurdles.”
