Eye on polls, Jharkhand offers sops to cops, homeguards, CRPF, nurses

RANCHI: With the Election Commission expected to announce Lok Sabha polls anytime now, the state government on Wednesday announced a slew of development measures.


Among the key decisions were an honorarium equivalent to one month’s salary to the 70,000-odd police personnel in the state. This comes in response to the cops demand for a 13-month salary in a year.

Earlier, CM Raghubar Das in his budget speech, had made an announcement in this regard. To implement this, the cabinet decided to form a committee headed by the chief secretary that will formulate the modalities and submit a report to the government within a month.

Jharkhand Policemen’s Association president Yogendra Singh thanked the government for accepting one of their demands, for which the cops have been agitating for quite some time. He said: “On February 25, senior police officials assured us that our demands would be considered.”

The cabinet decided to allow trainee nurses to work at Rims for one year. It also raise the daily wages of homeguards from Rs 400 to Rs 500. The government will also facilitate compensatory appointments to the wives and dependents of CRPF personnel who lay down their lives in the line of duty. This will be applicable to families of CRPF personnel posted at border areas or engaged in anti-Maoist operations.

The cabinet decided to revise the salaries of non-teaching employees of Birsa Agriculture University as per the Seventh Pay Commission recommendations. It also resolved to provide 1kg of Bengal gram every month to ration card holders for Rs 15, and approved centralised kitchens for students of Class I to VIII in government schools.

The cabinet approved Rs 36.55 crore for a new professional engineering college in Bokaro and Rs 280 crore for the construction of three residential schools on the lines of Netarhat Vidyalaya in Ranchi, Chaibasa and Dumka divisions. It decided to allot 0.44 acre of to State Bank of India (Godda). Similarly, it resolved to allot land Adani Power Jharkhand at Govindpur and Gayaghat in Godda district. The Food Corporation of India will get 6.3 acre land at Poreyahaat, Godda, on a 30-year lease.