People's Democracy

JHARKHAND

PM Assures To Protect People's Interests 

AT the initiative of the Jharkhand state committee of the CPI(M) and arranged and accompanied by Party’s Polit Bureau member Sitaram Yechury, a 20 member delegation of the opposition parties in Jharkhand met prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh on October 19, 2004 at his 7 Race Course residence.

In a jointly signed memorandum by six parties namely CPI(M), CPI, CPI(ML), Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM),Congress and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) the delegation had drawn attention of the prime minister mainly on four issues which are affecting the interests of the people of Jharkhand. These are for increasing the total number of legislative assembly seats from present 81 to somewhere between 140 to 160 seats; for protection of present proportion of ST seats which at present is 28; seeking prime minister’s intervention in the arbitrary proposals of delimitation commission of assembly seats causing difficulties to the people and affecting the interests of the tribals and for effective intervention of the central government on the burning problems of the people like absence of food security, drought relief, large scale closure of industries, large scale migration of the people from the state in search of food and livelihood and complete failure of BJP state government in addressing the problems of the people and development of the state.

After 45 minutes discussion, Sitaram Yechury made concrete suggestions to the prime minister like placing a bill in the winter session of the parliament for increasing number of assembly seats under Article 170 of the Constitution and also for amendment of relevant provisions of Bihar Reorganization Act, 2000; a Bill to amend Article 332(3B) of the Constitution for maintaining present proportion of ST seats by inclusion of Jharkhand where at present this provision is applicable only in case of Tripura. The other suggestion was to send a high power central team for first hand study and recommendation in the matter of food security, starvation death and other issues as pointed out in the memorandum.

The prime minister assured the delegation that issues and suggestions would be considered by him sympathetically and suggested to Sitaram Yechury to take up the matter with home minister Shivraj Patil and minister for legislative affairs Ghulam Nabi Azad.

The delegation  consisted of J S Majumdar, state secretary of Jharkhand and Rajendra Singh Munda from CPI(M); D Raja from CPI; Swapan Kumar Mukherjee and P K Choudhury, CPI(ML); Shibu Soren, MP and president of JMM, Stifen Marandi, MP, Haji Hussain Ansari, leader of the opposition in assembly and Durga Soren, MLA from JMM; state president Thomas Honsda, Ramesherar  Oraon MP; Furkan Ansari, MP, Rajendra Singh MLA, Sarfaraj Ahmad and 4 others from Congress; and state president Yogendra Nath Baitha MLA, Dhirendra Agarwal MP from RJD.

The memorandum to prime minister pointed out that amongst three newly formed states namely Uttaranchal, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand, Jharkhand has highest number of population but less number of seats – Uttaranchal (84 lakhs population)  70 seats, Chhattisgarh (2 .10 crores) 90 seats, Jharkhand 2.70 crores) 81 seats. Even Kerala has higher proportion of seats to that of population (3.10 crores) 140 seats. The upper limit of ministers is 15 per cent of total MLAs, which in case of Jharkhand is 12, and minimum limit for formation of a ministry is also 12 for the smallest state.  Dispersed population, hilly tracks in major areas of the state, jungles and topographical features make it difficult for an elected member to maintain contact with the people.

Delimitation of assembly constituencies in Jharkhand on the basis of 2001 census report would reduce the ST seats from the present 28 to 21 which will change the character of Jharkhand as tribal dominant state and make 5th schedule of the Constitution and land tenancy acts for protection of tribal lands irrelevant requiring urgent amendment of the Constitution on the lines of Tripura pattern for protection of proportion of ST seats.

The prime minister is scheduled to visit Jharkhand, his first as prime minister, on October 28 to begin the national food for work programme recognising the plight of the people in the state which already recorded 14 hunger deaths in recent times and thousands of poor families migrating to other states in search of food and livelihood. (INN)