Ranchi, April 29 (IANS) The ongoing court-ordered demolition drive across Jharkhand appears to have created differences within the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party-Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (BJP-JMM) alliance in the state, sources said Friday.
JMM chief Shibu Soren refused to join Chief Minister and BJP leader Arjun Munda in the foundation laying ceremonies scheduled for the day. This forced Munda to cancel his visit to Santhal Pargana region for launching developmental schemes, the sources said.
Munda, Shibu Soren and others were scheduled to leave Ranchi around 8.15 a.m. by a helicopter. According to sources, Shibu Soren refused to attend the foundation laying ceremony, compelling Munda to cancel his visit.
‘Guruji (as Shibu Soren is popularly called) is unhappy with the police firing in Dhanbad in which five people were killed Wednesday. In the last meeting of the coordination committee, Guruji had asked Munda to rehabilitate the displaced people. Guruji is not happy with the way the demolition drive is going on in the state and police resorting to firing,’ a JMM leader told IANS.
Shibu Soren has called a meeting of the core committee of the party in Ranchi later in the evening to discuss the prevailing situation in the state in the light of the ongoing demolition drive, which ahs been ordered by the Jharkhand High Court, he said.
Earlier, the state government issued full-page advertisement in local newspapers on the foundation laying ceremony in Santhal Pargana region which was to be attended by the chief minister, Shibu Soren and two deputy chief ministers Sudesh Mahto and Hemant Soren, Shibu Soren’s son.
The opposition parties have alleged that the demolition drive was being executed on the instruction of the state government in a most inhuman way.
Over the last 45 days, more than 5,000 illegal structures have been demolished in Ranchi, Jamshedpur, Dhanbad, Bokaro and other districts under the orders from the high court.
The opposition leaders alleged that the drive has claimed 13 lives and rendered more than 1.20 lakh people homeless.
