SIT formed to probe Illegal land transfer

The State Government on Tuesday constituted a three-member special investigation team (SIT) to probe transfer of lands belonging to tribals by circumventing provisions of Chotanagpur Tenancy Act (CNT) and Santhal Pargana Tenancy (SPT) Act. The three-member SIT will be headed by an Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer retired from the scale of Chief Secretary. A total of seven proposals were approved by Government in Tuesday's meeting.

The announcement in this regard was made by Chief Minister Raghubar Das on the floor of the Assembly during the ongoing Budget Session with the intent to expose land sharks who sold Adivasi land by violating the provisions of the two acts that protect displacement of tribals from their land.

Besides a Chairman, the SIT would also comprise a retired District and Sessions Judge or officer of the same level and a serving Joint Secretary level officer or an officer not below in rank to the Joint Secretary having knowledge of land related matters. The SIT will have tenure of one-year and will submit its interim report within two months.

"The committee will investigate into illegal transfer of land that comes under CNT and SPT Acts. And will also investigate transfer of land made by Special Regulation Officer by obfuscating facts about a tribal land under SAR-1969 of Sec-71A of CNT Act," said Additional Chief Secretary, Cabinet, NN Pandey.

To counter left-wing extremism, the State Government made its surrender and rehabilitation policy more appealing to the members of the extremist organisations. The amended policy has almost increased financial reward for shunning the path of violence by two-fold and linked it to the position of a surrendering extremist in the outfit. As per the amended policy a member of central committee, Politburo, special area committee, regional bureau will now get Rs 25-lakh (earlier Rs 12-lakh) for surrendering; a member of regional committee will now get Rs 15-lakh (earlier Rs 7-lakh) for laying down arms; member of zonal committee will get Rs 7-lakh (earlier Rs 5-lakh) whereas a member of sub-committee will receive Rs 5-lakh (earlier Rs 3-lakh) for joining the mainstream of the society.

The State Government also eased the process of selection of doctors for the medical sector that is facing severe crunch of human resource for managing thousands of primary, secondary and tertiary level facilities spread across the State. The State Health Services Recruitment, Promotion Rule-2010 has been amended to allow Jharkhand State Public Service Commission to take direct interview of applicants and recommend appointments to the Health department if the number of applications received is less than five-times the advertised post or is in multiple of five.

Despite forward march on three key issues government extended the existing industrial policy of 2000 until a new policy is framed. Other decisions taken by the government included giving approval to 'stress management course' for police officials by 'Art of living' and creating 14 addition administrative units (circle) in ten districts of Jharkhand.