Next CM must have roots in Jharkhand, say tribal outfits

RANCHI:

Jharkhand

Bachao Samanwaya Samiti (JBSS), an umbrella organization of more than 36 adivasi and moolvaasi outfits of the state, on Tuesday raised the slogan of “BJP aur Bhrashtachaar-Mukt Jharkhand” for the state assembly elections later this year.


The outfit, which also has several tribal activists as its members, also said it will only support the appointment of a tribal MLA with origins

in Jharkhand

as the next chief minister of the state. The demand was a veiled attack at chief minister

Raghubar Das

, who has been attacked by opposition parties in the past for his ancestral roots in Chhattisgarh.

JBSS met at a conference hall in Purulia Road in the morning with senior Congress leader Subodh Kant Sahay, JVM-P president Babulal Marandi, representatives of Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) in attendance. At the meeting, a “people’s agenda” was drafted. The document, which encompasses the demands of tribal communities of the state, will be tabled before the new government when it assumes office after the assembly polls, JBSS said.

Karma Oraon, an academician and tribal rights activist, said JBSS will also press for scrapping the state residents’ policy, implemented by the Raghubar Das government in 2015, so that the influx of outsiders in government jobs in Jharkhand can be checked. “The policy is flawed. Outsiders are robbing the tribal population of their right to government employments and opportunities in trade and commerce,” Oraon said.

In its charter of demands, JBSS also stressed on the need for forming separate commissions to handle displacements caused by industrialization and migration. “For 18 years, successive governments have ignored the need of the tribal people, who are the sons of the soil,” Sahay said at the meeting. Marandi, who spoke at the meeting, said it was necessary to rout BJP from Jharkhand at all costs.

The charter also states that the new government must focus on preserving the culture and identities of Jharkhand’s tribal communities, which are “at risk due to the current government’s focus on industrialization and commercialization”. Oraon said: “The decisions taken by the Das government on tribal issues should also be reviewed by the new government.”

Meanwhile, former Jharkhand Congress president Sukhdeo Bhagat hailed Rahul Gandhi’s announcement that his party will implement a minimum employment guarantee scheme if voted to power at the Centre. Calling it an expansion of the MGNREGA scheme, Bhagat said Jharkhand Congress will divert the funds, currently used by “the state government for advertisement and propaganda” to implement the scheme if voted to power in the state.