The deputies again More than the Opposition,it is his two deputies who are causing Chief Minister Arjun Munda his severest headaches. After MLAs of deputy CMs Hemant Sorens JMM and Sudesh Mahatos All Jharkhand Students Union disrupted the last day of the Assembly session,demanding pension for those involved in the Jharkhand movement,Munda announced lifelong pensions varying between Rs 3,000 and Rs 5,000 per month. Now,some of those agitating have sought free health and education for their children too. Munda is holding back till an objective definition is found for an activist of the Jharkhand movement. Soren and Mahato hope to identify them on the basis of police records of bandhs and economic blockades called by the parties to press for a separate state since 1939,but there is no unanimity on a definition among leaders of the ruling parties BJP,JMM,JD(U) and AJSU. Rail Link to Yashwant turf Twelve years after a 200-km railway project linking former Union minister Yashwant Sinhas Hazaribagh with Ranchi and Koderma was launched,things are finally moving. The Hazaribagh-Koderma portion is expected to be commissioned by the end of next year. With the project having struggled to take off,its cost has doubled since 2005. Sinha,who had promised to bring his constituency on the railway map of the country,had expressed his unhappiness to Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi over the slow pace of work. It was after this that the project has picked up pace. East Central Railways GM Varun Bharthuar visited the site with Sinha on Saturday. Later,Sinha told journalists that by November next year,the people of Hazaribagh would be able to travel by train. Lokayukta office cave-in Jharkhands Lokayukta has been without a building of its own for years. Now,after a portion of the 19th-century building from which Lokayukta Amreshwar Sahay has been officiating has caved in,his staff of half a dozen have been working from its corridors. Though the roof was repaired,the fear of another cave-in persists. We need an office where we can work without any fear, an employee wrote in a text message to his senior. The state government is yet to respond. The Lokayukta is yet to dispose of even one of many cases of corruption since 2005,including one against former chief secretary P P Sharma.
