Final decision on draft policy likely in June 11 meeting
The much-awaited meeting on domicile policy that took place after more than three months gap on Wednesday virtually remained futile as the members of the committee could not take any concrete decision apart from that of reviewing domicile policies of other neighbouring States and newly formed ones for completion of the draft policy for Jharkhand.
Committee members including MlAs Sarfaraj Ahmed, Bandhu Tirkey, Sanjay Yadav and Ministers Rajendra Prasad Singh, Geetshree Oraon, Suresh Paswan and Champai Soren attended the meeting.
The central point of the meeting focussed on the nature of the policy in the State vis a vis that of the newly formed States like Chhattisgarh and Uttarakhand and the neighbouring States, including Odisha and West Bengal, said sources. The panel members decided to review the policies of other States before formulating the final draft of the policy that is said to be 90 per cent complete.
“We discussed several proposals today however nothing concrete could come up to decisive in the matter. As of now we are doing comparative study of domicile policies of different States. The draft and the proposals are being weighed by the committee to be discussed once again in the meeting scheduled on June 11,” said senior Congress MlA Sarfaraz Ahmed.
However, Ahmed was quick enough to add that the draft proposal has been 90 per cent complete and they would soon submit it to the Government. “The draft and the proposals are almost complete and if we reach a consensus on the final proposals in the June 11 meeting we will submit the report (recommendations of the committee) to the Chief Minister without any delay,” Ahmed added.
Though most of the panel members chose to keep mum on the issue given the fact that it has been guiding the politics of Jharkhand, TMC leader Bandhu Tirkey, who is considered the most vocal leader in Jharkhand for tribal rights, said that they did not discuss anything substantial in the meeting but the panel would keep the interests of the marginalised population in mind.
Earlier, the committee had met twice in the month of February after it was formed during the Winter Session of Assembly and the Government pledging to come with a final draft on domicile policy within 90 days. The meeting of the panel was on hold due to the Model Code of Conduct during general elections.
The policy in question holds importance in the wake of thousands of vacancies in Government departments and acute staff crunch prevalent in State. It has also proved to be the most contentious issue of recruitment in Government jobs that has triggered civil war like situation in Jharkhand back in the year 2002 and the reason for the fall of Babulal Marandi-led Government.
After 2002 episode when the whole State was in the grip of Tribal Vs non-tribal mania, no political party or the leader could come forward and take a bold step to resolve the issue. Unstable political situation had also left the successive Governments toothless to take bold step in solving the problem.