The Hemant Soren government in Jharkhand has decided to take out the “Khatiyani Johar Yatra” to highlight its achievements over the last three years and take feedback on the implementation of government schemes.

The UPA government in Jharkhand is set to complete three years on December 29. The yatra, which will be launched on December 8, comes at a time Hemant is facing allegations of corruption for obtaining a mining lease while in power.

JMM central general secretary and party spokesperson Vinod Pandey said the Khatiyani Johar Yatra would be taken out by all the parties in the coalition government.

“The yatra would be led by Hemant ji but would have representation of senior district leaders from the Congress and the RJD, and MLAs and cabinet ministers who are in charge of districts. The idea is to connect with the people in their district and take feedback on the welfare schemes and historic decisions taken by the government,” Pandey said.

“The exact itinerary will be announced soon. It is scheduled to roll out tentatively from December 8 and continue till February before the budget session of the Assembly and cover all 24 districts. The first phase will cover six districts and end by December 15 as the winter session of the Assembly is likely to be held from December 16,” a source in CM’s secretariat said.

The yatra will commence from Garhwa and reach Palamau, Gumla, Lohardaga, Godda and Deoghar districts.

“The chief minister will address rallies in each district and interact with the locals. He will inform them about the hurdles put up by the BJP-led Centre and how the federal agencies are being misused to harass the ruling party MLAs. There will be a review meeting with district officials in each district during the implementation of government schemes, ” the source added.

Sources in the ruling coalition said the programme was likely to be called Khatiyani Johar Yatra as it sought to celebrate the government’s new domicile policy based on land records (khatiyan) of 1932 besides other achievements such as 27 per cent reservation for the OBC, old pension scheme, loan waiver scheme for farmers and crop relief scheme.

In 2019, the Badlav Yatra had led to the consolidation of tribal voters and a chunk of non-tribals “angered” by the Raghubar Das-led BJP regime and catapulted Hemant as the chief minister on December 29. With the Khatiyani Johar Yatra, Hemant will be treading the tested path again.