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Jharkhand: Congress asks its ministers to hold public hearings
The central leadership of Congress has directed four party ministers in Jharkhand to hold weekly Jan Sunwai to address grievances of party workers and people in general.
The central leadership of Congress has directed four party ministers in Jharkhand to hold weekly Jan Sunwai, people familiar with the matter said.
Jan Sunwai is an outreach programme to address grievances of party workers and people in general.
Last week, a meeting was chaired by party president Mallikarjuna Kharge and party leader Rahul Gandhi to review the political affairs in Jharkhand. Around three dozen party leaders from the state had attented the meeting during which performance of the ministers was also reviewed in their presence.
The four Congress ministers — Alamgir Alam, Rameshwar Oraon, Banna Gupta and Badal Patralekh — hold significant portfolios of rural development, finance and civil supplies, health and agriculture, respectively. Most of these departments are directly related to certain core political agendas of the Congress party, including MGNREGA and food security Act and benefits to farmers.
As per plans, the ministers would alternatively hold Jan Sunwai at state headquarters every week. Each minister would also hold Jan Sunwai in at least two districts every month, preferably at the block level in order to reach out to the masses in the rural area. The itinerary of the ministers would be well publicised and party leaders would be kept in loop about the event, a Congress leader said.
Jharkhand Congress president Rajesh Thakur held a closed-door meeting with the four ministers on Monday evening and chalked out the itinerary of the initiative. While the state president played down assertions that the initiative has been starred with an eye on 2024 assembly polls, Thakur said the state unit would make best efforts to fulfil the expectations of the central leadership.
“It would be wrong to say that this initiative has been taken in light of the elections in 2024. This is an old initiative, but it is true that it could not kick off properly and could not get desired result. Now ministers would hold weekly Jan Sunwai from state to block level to address the grievances of people,” said Thakur.
Reacting to the development, senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislator CP Singh said the effort won’t make any difference when elections are round the corner. “What were they doing for the last three-and-a-half years. This is just to divert attention from their failures,” he said.
