Thaindian News

Ranchi, May 19 (IANS) The Jharkhand government is planning to appoint two more advisors, a move that has invited flak from the opposition Congress that said Chief Minister Arjun Munda was more interested in “high flying ideas” than focusing on development.

The two new “development advisors” will be R.C. Sinha, a retired Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer from Maharashtra, and Sardara Singh Johal, who was deputy chairman of the Punjab planning board, sources said.

While Sinha’s name was suggested by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national president Nitin Gadkari, Johal is said to be the choice of alliance partner Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM).

“What is the need to appoint advisors. There is need to focus on implementing the state and central government schemes… The Munda government seems more interested in high-flying ideas instead of development,” Radha Krishna Kishore, spokesperson of the Jharkhand unit of the Congress, told IANS.

The Arjun Munda-led government already has four advisors.

Last year, the government had constituted a three-member team of economic advisors that was headed by economist V. Deorai and also included Vikash Singh, a relative of former BJP national president Rajnath Singh. The government sought suggestions for development of the state.

The Jharkhand government spent nearly Rs.1 million on the travels of the panel members.

Some experts dismissed the findings of the report.

“There is no focus point in the Deorai committee report,” said economist Ramesh Sharan.

But the government defended the appointment of the Deorai committee.

“The members of the committee were not paid a single penny in terms of wages. The state government extended only facilities for preparing the report,” said an official.

Besides the three, the government in January appointed former Bihar director general of police D.N. Gautam as security advisor.