In the first all-party meet called in the process of drafting a domicile policy for Jharkhand after coming into power exactly 100 days ago, the BJP-led Government has indicated to go ahead with the draft worked out by its predecessor. The Government that tried to read minds of the other political parties on the contentious issue on Tuesday has also sought for some time to make its view public and the direction of the policy in store.
Sources present in the meeting confided to The Pioneer that the political parties and stakeholders have been told to build their opinion based on the previously discussed and debated paper. "Chief Minister Raghubar Das told the representatives that the previous Government was doing a good job in drafting the domicile policy and this Government is also going ahead with that. He also said that there should be no politics on the serious issue like this," said a Secretary-level official after the all-party meeting.
The erstwhile Hemant Soren Government had constituted a committee to look into the matter and come up with a draft policy to define domicile for the State. The committee comprising MlAs from different parties and top Government officials had had several meetings and identified some grey areas to work up. In its fag end, the committee had classified all the residents into two sections namely-Jharkhandi and Moolvasi.
It is perceived that in this way the Government would be successful in negating the resistance coming from the JMM or at least douse it to some extent. The party, portraying itself as champion of the tribal cause in the State, has on several occasions taken a hard line on the 'insider' and 'outsider' issue in its effort to instigate tribal sentiments in its favour. Recently former Chief Minister Hemant Soren had even threatened for a "bloodbath if outsiders are allowed to get jobs in the State".
As the Chief Minister has set a tentative timeline of two months to come up with the policy, it is learnt that a draft would be presented in 15 days to outline the thinking within the establishment. He later also sat with intellectuals and editors of prominent media organisations separately to know their opinion.
Nevertheless, politics continued to overshadow the consultation process. The JMM, whose Government had tried to build a consensus on previous occasion, refused to put its cards on the table. "We have not seen the policy document of the Government yet. The party would make its opinion public after that only," said JMM spokesperson Supriyo Bhattacharya.
Party MlA from Chaibasa Deepak Birua, who along with legislator Stephen Marandi, attended the meeting, however adopted the hard line. "The Government should keep in its mind why the State was formed and for whomIJ The Moolvasis should get benefit of the State. Bihar has also kept last survey settlement criteria to determine domicile. Jharkhand was formed for a purpose and it should not be compared with the likes of Chhattisgarh and others," said the MlA.
Marandi also stressed to keep interests of original residents as utmost priority which is a clear distinction from an opinion to accommodate those who are born and brought up in the State.
The JVM went even further and claimed for a moratorium for outsiders in Government jobs. "The Government should draft separate policies for domicile and for getting employment. All the posts in the grade III and IV should be reserved only for locals for at least 10 years. This can only do justice with the original residents of Jharkhand," said party MlA and representative in the meeting Pradeep Yadav, who even left in a huff.
At the same time there was almost unanimity on at least one thing on the part of Opposition parties. All the members expressed their reservation on Government continuing with recruitments for teachers and others and demanded to put those on hold till the policy is decided.