Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren on Thursday wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and condemned the act of deduction of Rs 1,417 crore from the account of state with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in connection with the pending payment of Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC).
In the letter, Soren said that the deduction had been made as per the three-party agreement but he was hurt by the act as during the pandemic the government should not have deducted the money.
"The agreement was inked under normal situation but the implementation of the provisions of the act amid the coronavirus crisis in the first impression appears to be unconstitutional, immoral and attack the federal structure of the country," he said.
He said that in the history of Independent India this was the second occasion when such type of deduction has been made.
"Other states have more dues than Jharkhand which only owed just Rs 5,500 crore which has been deducted from the account of a tribal, Dalit and minorities dominated state like Jharkhand," he added.
"My government had started functioning in January 2020 and at that time the pending due was Rs 1,313 crore and despite that, a sum of Rs 741 crore was paid. The pending due of Rs 5,514 crore was accumulated during five years rule of BJP government but the provisions of the agreement were not enforced at that time," he added.
The Chief Minister urged PM Modi to cancel the deduction and give the funds back to the state and also direct the power department not to commit such acts in future amid the pandemic and also demanded that Coal Ministry be made a fourth party to the agreement.
He also requested the Prime Minister to give time so that he along with his few cabinet colleagues could brief him over the entire matter.
( With inputs from ANI )
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