Uproar over employment policy: Soren-led delegation meets Guv, urges approval of ‘1932 Khatiyan’, OBC reservation bills
Speaking to reporters after meeting the governor, CM Hemant Soren said the delegation, which had representatives from the ruling JMM, Congress, and RJD, besides those from Left and AJSU Party, has urged the governor to approve the bills at the earliest.
RANCHI: With pressure building over the state government over the employment issue, a delegation of legislators led by chief minister Hemant Soren met Jharkhand governor Ramesh Bais, urging him to approve two bills, ‘1932 Khatiyan’ and ‘OBC reservation’, passed by the assembly and send it to the Centre for their inclusion in the ninth schedule of the Constitution.
The Khatiyan bill aims to fix land records of 1932 as the basis to determine the state’s domicile and the state’s employment policy to reserve class III & IV government jobs for the locals. The OBC reservation bill increases the quota in state jobs for the OBCs from the existing 14 to 27 %.
As per the draft of the two approved bills, they would become effective only after they are included in the ninth schedule of the Constitution, which provides a shield from judicial scrutiny. The two bills have been sent to Raj Bhawan for its approval and it will forward them to the Centre for further action.
Speaking to reporters after meeting the governor, CM Hemant Soren said the delegation, which had representatives from the ruling JMM, Congress, and RJD, besides those from Left and AJSU Party, has urged the governor to approve the bills at the earliest.
“We all know that the HC has scrapped our employment policy. This is not the first time that courts have struck down employment policy. It is unfortunate as we had framed the policy in the interest of the Adivasis and Moolvasis. But we also had doubts so we have been taking precautions because we know there are certain elements in the state who want to eat into the rights of the locals. Of the 20 petitioners, only one was a tribal and the rest are from other states,” said Soren.
“Since we are aware of such conspiracies, we passed the 1932 Khatiyan (land records) bill in November to determine the domicile and employment policy in order to make sure locals get class III & IV jobs. We also passed the OBC reservation bill. Both these bills have to be sent to Centre for inclusion in the ninth schedule in order to ensure no conspiracy is done against these,” said Soren.
Assuring the job aspirants of the state, Soren said the government would soon come up with an alternative plan to provide them employment.
The development holds significance as it comes barely three days after the Jharkhand high court struck down the employment policy of 2021 brought in by the Hemant Soren government, which amended the Jharkhand Staff Selection Commission (JSSC) examination rules, making passing class 10th and 12th from a school in Jharkhand mandatory for the job aspirants belonging to the general category.
The opposition BJP, which had been opposing the amended examination rules since they were approved by the Cabinet in August 2021, disrupted the proceedings on the second day of the ongoing winter session on Tuesday with the legislators protesting over the issue outside the House.
The BJP also turned down the appeal of the chief minister to join the delegation to Raj Bhawan on Tuesday. Jharkhand BJP state president Deepak Prakash wrote back to the chief minister saying the state government’s pitch to send the two bills to Centre for their inclusion is a mere diversionary tactic.
Defending their decision, BJP legislature party leader Babulal Marandi said the state government should instead deliberate on the issue afresh and make employment policy as it is in the ambit of the state government.
“It was my government that brought 1932 land record-based domicile and employment policy (in 2002). But it was struck down by the high court with few suggestions. Raghubar Das’s government brought a new domicile policy (in 2016) which was scrapped by this government. And now they want to include a new domicile policy in the ninth schedule to prevent judicial scrutiny. But there is a clear Supreme Court judgement from 2007 that says they can review even laws put in the ninth schedule,” said Marandi, who was the first chief minister of the state.