Denied opportunity inside the Assembly, the Government made its stand clear before the media on the contentious domicile policy on Wednesday. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Saryu Roy, instead, put the blame on the premier Opposition party JMM for misguiding people and spreading falsehood over the issue.
Addressing a Press conference when the House was not allowed to function properly the whole day and saw just passage of four Bills without any discussion, Roy, on the occasion, also referred to previous decisions taken by subsequent Governments since 2000.
“The Assembly has been held to ransom for last 2-3 days over domicile policy as if there is no such policy in existence in the State. This is not the case. Apart from the modification done in the policy adopted from Bihar by the then Babulal Marandi Government on September 22, 2001, the rest provisions of it are in existence as it is for employment purposes,” said the senior Minister.
The first Government formed after Jharkhand got separated from Bihar had adopted a circular of 1982 of Bihar which defined locals based on the last survey records. An amendment to this took place on August 8, 2002 which proposed to consider the left-outs and landless following the recommendation of at least five locals of the area and having knowledge of local custom, language etc.
Roy further added that a five-judge Bench of the Jharkhand High Court had dismissed on November 11, 2002 the modification only. “There was no appeal made further on the matter. As of today barring the rejected modifications done, the rest of the decisions are in existence. So, their stand that no domicile policy exists in the State is nothing but an attempt to misguide the people and spread confusion,” he said and sought from the JMM and others to make their stand clear about the policy.
Further, when asked about the process underway at present, Roy said the consultation was on. “The Chief Minister had given a deadline and we went into a huddle with political parties and various social groups. Our effort is to repair the HC rejected provisions so that it can sustain. An informal discussion on the issue has also taken place in the Cabinet meeting on Tuesday. The process is on and soon the policy would be declared,” said the Minister.
Meanwhile, as many as 28 legislators of the BJP also wrote to Chief Minister Raghubar Das to tread cautiously over the issue. Mentioning the previous chain of events, circulars issued by the Government in the past, constitutional provisions and following order of the High Court, the MlAs have tendered some suggestions as well.
“The Jharkhand High Court has already termed unconstitutional the attempt to provide preference to anyone on the basis of his place of birth or residence. In this case defining anyone based on khatiyan or otherwise by setting a cutoff-date would only facilitate outsiders in getting the certificate as locals. So, the Government should refrain from defining locals. If the Government aims to formulate Domicile policy then based on the provisions of the Constitution a proposal in this regard should be sent to Parliament to enact a law. Till then, knowledge of local art, culture, custom, history, geography should be made compulsory for employment in grade III and IV,” reads the letter signed by the MlAs.