Will provide charter plane if BJP leaders are willing to meet PM, seek help: JMM

Accusing the Centre of non-cooperation in batting the ongoing Covid-19 crisis, the ruling Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) on Saturday said they “will provide charter plane” if elected representatives of the state BJP were willing to go to Delhi and “lobby with the Centre” in getting the rightful claim of the state in terms of equipment and essential drugs

Accusing the Centre of non-cooperation in batting the ongoing Covid-19 crisis, the ruling Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) on Saturday said they “will provide charter plane” if elected representatives of the state BJP were willing to go to Delhi and “lobby with the Centre” in getting the rightful claim of the state in terms of equipment and essential drugs.

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Addressing media persons, JMM principal general secretary Supriyo Bhattacharya said instead of pointing fingers towards chief minister Hemant Soren for his statement after the phone call with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the BJP’s elected representatives from the state should help the government in getting what it requires to fight the pandemic. “Be it providing adequate number of vaccines, essential drugs, oxygen cylinders or installing oxygen plants under PM Cares fund, the state’s requirements are not being fulfilled. We require 4.5 crore doses of vaccines, but till date we have received only 29.83 lakh doses. The Centre made budgetary provision of ₹35,000 crore for vaccination, but now states have been burdened to bear the cost for inoculation of 18-44 age group,” he said.

He further said the state received only 29,524 vials of Remdesivir against its demand of 4,28,500 vials till now. The state requisitioned for installation of 21 oxygen plants under PM Cares but were allowed only four of them, work for which was yet to start, the JMM leader claimed.

“The BJP has 16 MPs from the state (12 Lok Sabha and four from Rajya Sabha). We only have four MPs, two in each house. They also have 25 MLAs. Instead of getting worked up by what the CM wanted to tell the PM, the BJP’s elected representatives should go to the PM and the health minister and lobby to get what the state deserves. If they are willing to go, we will provide them a charter plane to go to Delhi,” Bhattacharya said.

Several BJP leaders, including Union ministers and chief ministers of other states, besides local leaders hit out at CM Hemant Soren for his recent statement on social media platform Twitter, saying that the PM only spoke his ‘mann ki baat’ when he called on Thursday “instead of listening” what the former had to share about the Covid situation in the state.