‘Laloo-Rabri gifted us militancy’

jamshedpur: chief minister babulal marandi on monday slammed the laloo-rabri regime for the bloody militancy, engulfing the nascent state of jharkhand. the previous government had for 10 years allowed the extremist groups to spread their tentacles, marandi told a modest gathering at the copper town on monday morning. the chief minister was speaking at the inaugural function of the lifeline express project, sponsored by tata steel.he also laid the foundation stone of a divisional hospital and a bridge. people who criticise that we have failed on the law and order front, should answer what they had done in the last 10 years, marandi asserted. our government has taken the first step to free the state from the extremists. there will be a struggle and we are ready to pay the price for it. marandi's ministerial colleagues and alliance leaders were more direct in their attack, accusing laloo yadav of being hand-in-glove with the outlawed maoist communist centre (mcc). the mcc had called a bandh on november 26, the day laloo surrenders before the trial court at ranchi in the fodder scam case. the chief minister was subtle. he avoided taking names, as he called for social change to stamp out corruption. my government is determined to uproot corruption.the vigilance department has this year booked 18 government officials on charges of corruption. but this alone would not solve the problem. many former chief ministers and ias officers have spent days in jail on corruption charges in the recent past. people have to come forward, he felt. marandi promised to act if people brought to light corruption cases. you ace drop a postcard and we would take action. the chief minister also rubbished the criticism about the performance of his government. only 5,000 villages got electricity in the last 53 years. about 70 per cent of the villages are still without roads. what did people expect us to achieve in one year? i don't promise roads like hema malini's cheeks, the chief minister quipped. i do promise that every panchayat headquarters will be liked with roads by december, 2003. the government will spend rs 1,000 crore in building bridges needed to connect the far-flung villages. marandi also announced that his government has taken steps to provide electricity in the countryside. we are constructing new substations and grids. the number of new transformers installed by the electricity board in the last six months is far more than that in the last 10 years. the welfare minister, arjun munda, minister of state for health dinesh sarangi, tata steel managing director b muthuraman, tata steel deputy managing director a n singh, government officials and a host of nda leaders were present at the function. over 3,000 patients are expected to receive free treatment under the lifeline express project.