Daltonganj has been witnessing a heat wave for the past three months and to add to their woes the strong gale about a month and half ago uprooted the main tower at Sonenagar, thus plunging the city into darkness. Though temporarily electricity was partially restored, it was like a drop in the ocean as the entire city was hardly getting couple of hours of power.
 

The restoration work on the tower was going at snail’s pace and the Shibu government practically non-functional then; there was no control over the maintenance staff. The innumerable complaints and pleas of the locals fell only on deaf ears and none of the officials prepared to give a definite answer.

The residents decided to lodge their protest in a unique manner. Hundreds of residents made a bee-line to the Koel river banks every night for the past few days (nights) with their beddings to catch up with their sleep under the sky and cool comfort of the river banks. The Koel River at present is totally dry.

The idea behind the protest was to catch the media’s attention and proved successful as the entire local and national channels rushed to the spot to cover the unique protest.

The agitated people were waiting for just this opportunity to express and voice their anger against the administration and JSEB. This correspondent spoke to many residents and every one of them echoed the misery of the past 45 days being forced on them.

Vishwanath Ram Bhura, president of the minorities’ cell of RJD is also amongst the hundreds spending their nights on the river banks and minces no words as he cursed the inefficient governance of the JMM/BJP alliance. He squarely blamed them for the present crisis and alleged that these selfish leaders have forced the people to sleep outside under the open skies.

Ramesh Giri, an established businessman of the area more or less shares the sentiments of Vishwanath but feels that situation would improve under the President’s rule. He pleaded with the media to highlight the apathy of the JSEB towards its consumers.

Local MLA K N Tripathi could not be contacted for his comments.

JSEB officials in Ranchi totally refuted the allegations of apathy. M P Yadav, General Secretary of JSEB Association and the Chief coordinator, said that the two towers that were damaged in the strong gale had to be dismantled and reconstructed and erected. Each tower takes around 4 days and the work on the towers commenced the very next day i.e. the 2nd of this month itself and as of today is fully operational. He added that the other towers in the Bihar area of the Sone nagar were yet to be repaired forcing power cuts. Sone is providing 25MW and 15 MW is being consumed for emergency services and Railways and 10-12MW for the City. Load shedding is done partially with 2-3 hr intermissions and services would regain normalcy within the next 7-10days.

The National advisory Council decides the policies and directions of the UPA. Only a few selected are nominated as members to the council.

Dr. Munda has been internationally acclaimed for his invaluable contribution to the development of Tribal Art and Culture. He was the former Chancellor of Ranchi University.

The Party is now in dilemma whether to continue bearing this abominable behavior of JMM or withdraw support to put a permanent stop to this never ending cat & mouse game. Leader of the opposition in Lok Sabha, Sushma Swaraj is of the firm opinion that BJP should waste no further time in withdrawing the support to JMM. Similarly many other senior leaders of the Party echoed her feelings and felt that any further dilly-dallying would only further harm the Party in the State.

Right from the onset BJP’s effort to head the government appeared to be an attempt at futility as the voice of dissent from more than half a dozen JMM MLAs persisted. After the Tuesday press conference of Arjun Munda and Shibu Soren jointly, the number of dissidents has risen to nearly a dozen. Even within the BJP it was not a smooth path as there were divided opinions on the leadership.

On the other hand both the Congress as well as the JVM is refraining from being overtly harsh on Guruji while mincing no words in castigating the BJP for pressurizing the JMM Supremo to usurp the power. BJP has been cutting a sorry figure right from day one after Shibu voted in favor of the UPA in the cut-motion voting. Even after the BJP Parliamentary Board passed the resolution to withdraw support, the temptation of chance to rule in the State took precedence over policy decisions. The withdrawal letter was put on hold and now it hardly looks relevant as JMM obviously has other plans to retain its throne. Congress-JVM would happily grab the opportunity to ensure that BJP sits in the opposition.

On Friday Guruji again hinted that he would contest the Assembly by election to retain his CM’s post. This is only possible when the present government resigns and Guruji once again heading a new coalition. Thus constitutionally he would again get another 180 days to file his nomination for a by election seat.

It may seem a mockery of the constitutional provisions but never the less, undisputedly a strategy reeking of ingenious politicking

- P. Vijay Raghavan

The delegation also demanded that the Ranchi University workers should be paid as per the fifth pay commission recommendations. They demanded the rolling back of the increased energy tariff as it would prove to be an additional burden on the common man.

The delegation members included Girinath Singh, Annapoorna Devi, Sanjay Yadav, Manohar Yadav from RJD, CPM’s Gyan Shankar Mazumdar & Rajendra Singh Munda, CPI’s K D Singh, FB’s Janardhan Pandey and SP’s Jahanara and LJP’s Mithilesh Paswan.

The situation did not improve a wee bit though large promises were made at break-neck speed. There was a glimmer of hope that the State would figure in the international map as many multi national companies evinced their interest to invest in the State in the industrial sector. Arcelor Mittal’s Chief flew all the way from London to Ranchi with his family to sign the MOU for setting up a mega steel plant. It was being projected that nearly 25000 people would be given employment opportunities. Similarly many other leading companies signed MOUs for setting up various industries and power plants. All this turned out to be a pipe dream as even Arjun Munda was ousted from his post. The ironical part is none of the MOUs have yet to see the light of the day.

Shibu Soren took over the reins and he departed faster than he stepped in as he lost the mandatory by election. Madhu Koda became the first Independent MLA to be sworn in as CM. Every thing moved on in a sluggish manner but the very word ‘development’ was sadly missing. Madhu Koda got embroiled in various controversies and along with couple of his ministerial colleagues was put behind bars on charges of corruption and money laundering. A terrible scar on the State yet again!

The State was put under the President’s rule and Governor Syed Sibte Razi only managed to create more confusion than concentrating on development. He too was unceremoniously withdrawn from his post and transferred to Assam.

The six months following that period were one of the best for the State after the Babulal regime. The new Governor K. Shankaranarayanan once again raised hopes of positive development. Bureaucrats were seen shivering at his very sight and for the first time even the people were heard speaking aloud that ‘aise hee hota hai kaam’ (This is how the work should be done). All good things come to an end and even Shankaranarayan had to bid adieu as a democratically elected government was administered the oath of office.

Shibu once again became the CM with a new alliance. The present government was full of vigor and made promises to a dozen. Just when the time came for the four month old government to execute its promises, things started souring. On Wednesday the much hyped one rupee per kilogram rice/wheat and 25 paise a kilo salt took off with lot of pomp and media glare. Within hours of the commencement the news poured in that BJP had withdrawn its support to the Shibu government as Shibu had voted against the BJP in the cut motion division of votes in the Parliament. Once again the work came to a sudden standstill.

If this is not voodism at its best (worst) then what is?

- P. Vijay Raghavan

Meanwhile the opposition parties are also gearing up for the Torpa by election and are planning a consensus candidate to defeat Shibu. Both the State Congress President Pradeep Balmuchu and the newly elected State RJD President Girinath Singh said that a strong candidate would be nominated to contest the polls against the CM. They were confident that the results would be no different from the Tamar by-election last time and Shibu would be defeated.