Marandi demands Rs 10,000 crore package from Centre

GIRIDIH (JHARKHAND): Renewing its demand to declare Jharkhand as famine-hit, former Chief Minister, Babulal Marandi today demanded that the Centre provides Rs 10,000 crore as financial assistance to meet the state's needs.

"The people of the state are hit hard by successive drought years. The poor are unable to purchase grains as they are not getting ration though the state has announced it," Marandi, who is the president of Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (Prajatantric), told a news conference here.

"We demand the financial package to address the state's requirement in the face of rising prices too," the Lok Sabha member added.

Marandi accused the Arjun Munda government of not keeping its commitment to dig wells and sink tubewells across the state. The JVM-P would give a 'bhoj (feast)' for 20 lakh poor people on January 29 in different places in the state, he said and "The bhoj is a way to highlight how the poor are starving in the face of famine."

To realise its demand, the party had called a two-day economic blockade on February 11 and 12 and would not allow a single truck taking raw materials or products outside Jharkhand, he said.

He also demanded shifting of the headquarters of Damodar Valley Corporation and Coal India Limited from Kolkata to Jharkhand and converting Dhanbad Rail Division into Dhanbad Rail Zone.