Helping poor people top priority of Jharkhand govt policies: Governor

In his address to the Assembly at the start of the Budget Session, the governor spoke of the initiatives to create jobs in rural areas, and augment health infrastructure to fight the Covid-19 pandemic

Jharkhand Governor Ramesh Bais on Friday said the top priority of his government's policies is to help the poor and asked legislators to formulate laws to benefit the society at large.

In his address to the Assembly at the start of the Budget Session, the governor spoke of the initiatives to create jobs in rural areas, augment health infrastructure to fight the Covid-19 pandemic and bring governance to the doorstep of the people to ensure that benefits of government schemes reach them.

Bais also asked legislators to uphold the dignity of the Assembly through their conduct and work.

"The state of democracy in the state and the country depends on the conduct and behaviour of the legislators. I have full faith that by your conduct and behaviour you will uphold the dignity and piousness of this House.... I want to urge you to rise above party considerations and work towards all-round development of the state, he said.

He said the state government is making every effort to establish a clean, sensitive, transparent and accountable administration.

Under the Jharkhand Agriculture Loan Waiver Scheme, Rs 836.57 crore has been transferred to the accounts of more than two lakh farmers till date, the governor said.

Action is being taken by the government to provide clean drinking water to all rural households, he said adding that 49,656 rural water supply schemes have been approved at a cost of about Rs 15,000 crore in this financial year for this purpose.

Bais said the government was promoting animal husbandry schemes to benefit the rural population and enacted the Employment of Local Candidates in Private Sector Act, 2021 to ensure that local people get jobs in private companies.

Besides promoting sports talents of the state, the government is striving for industrial development and has also made schemes for welfare of unorganised sector workers, the governor said.

On the mining front, he said the government so far has completed auction of seven mineral blocks and will proceed for auction of four iron ore and manganese ore blocks, four limestone, three bauxite and two graphite mineral blocks.

Altogether 16,850 new taxpayers have been registered till December 2021 under the Jharkhand Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017. The total number of registrations under GST has gone up to 1,87,997, according to the governor.

In the financial year 2021-22, a total revenue of Rs 16611.80 crore has been collected by the government till the month of January 2022.

Bais said under the Jharkhand State Food Security Scheme that came into force from January last year, 15 lakh beneficiaries who are not covered by the National Food Security Act are being provided five kg of rice per month per head at a subsidised rate of Re 1 a kg.