Noisy scenes in Jharkhand Assembly over CM Hemant Soren’s bail issue

Ranchi: The Jharkhand Assembly witnessed a noisy scene on Tuesday as members of the JMM-led alliance and the opposition BJP engaged in heated arguments over the Supreme Court’s decision on Chief Minister Hemant Soren’s bail.

The ruling alliance sought the opposition’s apology over the Supreme Court’s decision to dismiss a plea filed by the Enforcement Directorate challenging a Jharkhand High Court order granting bail to Soren, while the BJP members claimed that the CM was not acquitted yet in a money laundering case linked to an alleged land scam.

The Question Hour in the House was disrupted as members of both sides continued to trade barbs over the CM's bail issue. As the House assembled around 11 am, Poreyahat MLA Pradip Yadav, who joined the Congress after winning the 2019 polls on a JVM-P ticket, said the decisions of the apex court and the High Court of Jharkhand on ED’s plea suggested that the chief minister had been "falsely implicated".

“It was a waste of time. The projects, which have been in the pipeline would have been implemented. The opposition conspired to send him (Hemant Soren) to jail. They have played with the future of youths and farmers. The BJP members should seek a public apology,” Yadav said.

JMM MLA Sudivya Kumar asked, "Will our opposition reply that who will be responsible for hampering the welfare schemes of the government for five months? Will they seek a reply from people of the state?” Leader of Opposition Amar Kumar Bauri wanted the opposition’s view over the bail granted to Soren.

“The chief minister was granted bail by the court. He has not been acquitted," he said.

Bauri's comment led to a heated exchange of words between the members of the ruling alliance and the opposition. They trooped into the well of the House.

Speaker Rabindra Nath Mahato urged members of both sides to return to their chairs.

Unable to run the proceedings, the Speaker adjourned the House till 12.30 pm.

Thereafter, the House came in order for question hour, in which BJP legislator Neelkanth Singh Munda asked the government about the "non-distribution of textbooks" in government schools.

State Education Minister Baidyanath Ram said the distribution of textbooks had been hampered due to the model code of conduct for the recent Lok Sabha polls.

“The textbooks have been supplied to every district and they will be distributed within a week,” Ram said.

Munda, however, claimed that there were irregularities in the delay in distributing textbooks and demanded a probe.

Bauri said that there has been a "precarious condition in the state, as the government could not distribute bicycles in the past five years and now the textbooks".