Pre-empting the course of action on the CNT and SPT Acts Amendment Bills passed by the Assembly in a hurry, the JMM and Congress have approached President Pranab Mukherjee requesting him not to put his sign on it.
A delegation led by party supremo and Dumka MP Shibu Soren handed over a memorandum to the President at Rastrapati Bhawan in Delhi on Wednesday.
The letter referring to the previous attempt of the State Government to amend the tenancy laws through an Ordinance has reiterated that the yet another move would jeopardise social and economic living of tribals in Jharkhand. The leaders have in their representation before the President also claimed that the due procedures were not followed in passing the Bills in the Assembly’s Winter Session.
“The State Government called a very brief session and got cleared the CNT-1908 and SPT-1949 amendment Bills without any discussion and by putting all the democratic processes aside. By doing this, the Government would get immense power to notify agricultural land as non-agricultural land. This would pave way for looting tribal land by non-tribals,” reads the four-page memorandum signed not only by all the party MPs and MlAs but also some from the Congress.
PCC president Sukhdeo Bhagat, Arup Chatterjee of Marxist Coordination, former Union Minister Subodh Kant Sahay and AICC spokesperson Ajoy Kumar have put in their signatures supporting the demand. They also together argued that on no previous occasion soul of the CNT-SPT Acts was altered with and the “fatal” move of the BJP-led Government would convert the tenancy laws into lifeless entities.
The Bills got passed by the House amid unforeseen pandemonium invoked by the Opposition on this very issue. The parties did not allow the Assembly to function for even a single day and the six-day Session ended up sine-die ahead of its scheduled close.
The letter also went on denouncing the arguments being put forth by the Government that ownership rights of the raiyats would remain intact.
“There is no such reference about ownership right in any land related legislation. Also, the ownership right has not been defined in the amendment Bills. This is being done just to mislead the people and the Government is doing a false propaganda in this regard,” states the memorandum. The Bills after getting passed have been sent to the Governor which would reach the President via the Union Home Ministry.
The leaders in order to drive home the point urged the President not to give his assent to the amendments proposed by pressing the facts that land and related activities are backbone of tribal economy and their livelihood which would be destroyed once the changes come into force.
Back home, the JVM taking forward the similar issue kick started its ‘Haq aur Mati Bachao’ campaign from Poraiyahat of Godda. “Amending the CNT and SPT Acts is just an extension of the Government’s intention to loot the lands of tribals in the State. They are doing this by using their machinery. Police are firing at common unarmed people just for the sake of corporate houses. We cannot allow this to continue,” said party chief Babulal Marandi. local party MlA Pradeep Yadav and other senior leaders of the party were also present.