Leader of Opposition Babulal Marandi accused the Hemant Soren government of institutionalized appeasement and administrative breakdown, pointing to stark disparities in ex-gratia compensation and a deepening healthcare crisis.
“In Jharkhand today, a rape accused is worth ₹3 lakh, a Kanwariya is worth ₹1 lakh, and a government ambulance worker gets nothing—not even his salary,” Marandi said.
Marandi criticised the government’s decision to award ₹3 lakh to the family of Aftab Ansari, an accused in a rape case whose death in Ramgarh was termed mob lynching by the state’s health minister. However, the health department’s own post-mortem report concluded that Ansari died from drowning.
“Even the minister’s medical degree is now under question,” Marandi remarked. In contrast, he pointed out, the state gave only ₹1 lakh to the families of Kanwariyas who died in a road accident while returning from Baidyanath Dham. “This is not governance—it is vote-bank arithmetic,” he said.
Turning to the ongoing strike by ambulance workers, Marandi said the government had ignored a previous tripartite agreement that promised fair wages, restoration of deducted salaries, 60-year service terms, and direct payments via NHM.
“Ambulances are off the roads, patients are stranded, yet the government shows no urgency. The health minister had once said that carrying patients on cots is normal—is this the mindset that will fix our health system?” he asked.
Marandi urged Chief Minister Hemant Soren to personally intervene and act on the workers’ demands. “When state employees have to fight just to get paid, it shows how hollow this administration has become,” he said. “The health department, like the broken ambulances, is rusting. Rhetoric won’t save lives—accountability will.”