A delegation of Jharkhand Mukti Morcha lead by senior party leader and MlA Stephen Marandi met Governor Droupadi Murmu at Raj Bhawan in Ranchi on Sunday and handed over a memorandum requesting her to reject the Jharkhand Freedom of Religion Bill, 2017 and Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 (Amendment) Bill completely keeping the interests of tribal population in mind.
Handing over the letter written by former Chief Minister and JMM executive president Hemant Soren Marandi stated that the Bills will pose a threat to the social and communal harmony in the State.
“JMM had demanded that the Religious (Amendment) Bill 2017 should be passed only after putting it for discussions before the Select Committee of the State Assembly, but despite resistance from Opposition, the Bill was passed,” stated the letter written by Soren.
Despite the fact that Sections 295 to 298 of the IPC ensures that no one could be compelled to change his religion by luring or by threatening anybody against his will, what is the logic of bringing Jharkhand Freedom of Religion Bill, 2017, it stated.
It was also written in the letter that the land Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 (amendment) bill was passed in the Assembly only to keep the promise of providing land to the Industrialists made to them during Momentum Jharkhand. Proposal for making changes in CNT/SPT Acts was also brought to keep the same promise which was sent back by the Governor.
Stephen Mrandi told the Governor that since the Constitution already provides a person the right to practice a religion of his choice, the bill will finish the freedom of a person.
“As there already a provision to check such practices under 295 to 298 of IPC ensuring that no one could be compelled to change his religion by luring or by threatening anybody against his will, what is the logic of bringing this bill; it will only make things more complicated which could be later misused by the administration,” said Marandi. It is an attempt to divide the tribal population in the name of Christian and Sarna under political propaganda.
Talking about the land bill, Marandi said that everything was going and lands were being acquired since long for various development purposes, if changes are made in it, they will start acquiring land forcefully after identifying the land to hand it over to the industrialists or builders.
“They have removed the compulsion of the provisions of Social Impact Assessment under section (2) of (2), which is the soul of the original Act of 2013. Distortion with the original Act could not be done,” said Marandi.
The delegation also included Shashi Bhushan Samad, Jai Prakash Bhai Patel, Joba Manjhi, Dipak Birua, Ravindra Mahto, Yogendra Prasad, Nalin Soren, and Suprio Bhattacharya.