The BJP’s #MainBhiChowkidar campaign might have gained handsome dividend to the party in 2019 Parliamentary elections with every BJP leader prefixing chowkidar to his profile; Jharkhand’s actual chowkidars were facing the pain of being a chowkidars.
As many as 554 chowkidars sacked by the then Raghubar Das Government in 2016 have been fighting for justice.
During last year's winter session of the Assembly Congress’ Mahgama MLA Dipika Pandey Singh raised this issue. On her insistence an Assembly committee was formed to look into the issue. Assembly Speaker Rabindra Nath Mahto is also learnt to have asked the Government to find a solution.
“Why should poor chowkidars suffer for the mistakes committed by the government and officials? Duly appointed after years of service they were terminated. The Government must reinstate them. They are in a miserable condition,” said the MLA.
They have pinned their hope on the Hemant Soren led government. Hoping some good news they keep visiting the project Building, houses of ministers, MLAs, MPs and officials.
“Don’t know how long this struggle will continue. Situation is so bad for us that it is difficult to make both ends meet,” said Pappu Kumar, a chowkidar.
All of them were appointed between 2010 and 2013. According to the Jharkhand government they were terminated in the light of judgments of the Supreme Court and Jharkhand High Court respectively. They were appointed on the basis of the age-old hereditary tradition where a son gets a job after the retirement of his father.
In 2015 Jharkhand government had formed a regulation regarding appointment of chowkidars. But, prior to this Jharkhand was following the regulation of Bihar.
In 1995 the Bihar government had issued a circular, under which a chowkidar, who retired on January 1, 1990 and onward can nominate one person of his family to be appointed as chowkidar. That was a one-time relaxation for any serving chowkidar and his family.
The Jharkhand government followed that circular of Bihar for onetime hereditary appointment.
In 2006 the Bihar government also brought regulations for appointment of chowkidars. In April 2010 the Supreme Court in ‘Surendra Paswan VS Bihar government’ case set aside the system of hereditary appointment even the one time. In November 2011, the Jharkhand High Court in ‘Nandan Lohra Vs Jharkhand government’ case stated appointment must be done through open competition. But, the Jharkhand government continued with onetime hereditary appointments in selective cases. It woke-up to judgments in 2014 and directed all districts to keep all such appointments on hold. In April 4, 2015 the Jharkhand government brought a rule regarding appointments of chowkidars and also legalised all such onetime hereditary appointments made till April 2015.
In the same year a matter of similar nature was brought before the Jharkhand High Court where the court asked the government that how many chowkidars have been appointed on onetime hereditary appointment basis. But, the Jharkhand government instead, telling the court that all such onetime hereditary appointments had been legalized, terminated them from the job.