The Jharkhand cabinet on Wednesday approved the draft ‘Local Residents of Jharkhand Bill’ for 2022, keeping 1932 as the cut-off year for “proof of land records” to define local residents. The second draft legislative proposal approved by the cabinet seeks to increase the reservation in Jharkhand to 67% from the current 50%.
Sources said the bills will be introduced in the Assembly and after both are passed, the state government will send them to the Center (besides the governor), seeking amendments to the two laws in the Ninth Schedule. Constitution to avoid judicial scrutiny.
The move comes barely a week after Chief Minister Hemant Soren raised the issue of Jharkhand’s domicile policy during the trust vote called by him.
Government sources said that those who do not have land, or those who do not have their own or their family’s name in the 1932 Khatia (Proof of land document of a person), will be verified by the respective Gram Sabhas.
Incidentally, just six months earlier, the Jharkhand government had indicated that the year 1932 would not be the sole basis of domicile.
A top-level source said: “The Hemant Soren government wants to take responsibility BJP The government will bring a constitutional amendment to include the Jharkhand Local Residents Bill 2022 in the Ninth Schedule to keep it out of judicial review. This was done in the wake of massive protests and several lawsuits challenging the domicile policy brought in during the Babulal Marandi government, which was based on the final survey, which included a cut-off date of 1932.
The Cabinet brief related to this Bill reads: “Jharkhand ke sthaniya niwasi ki parivasa awem pehchaan hetu, Jharkhand ke sthaniya vyaktiyon ki paribhasha aur parinami samajik sanskritik aur anya laabho ko aise sthaniya vyakti ki tiyon ki vid kar vistary vyakti ki vid vid kar wiktiyon ki paribhasha aur parinami samajik (To define the Local Resident of Jharkhand and for extending the consequential, social, cultural and other benefits to such local persons, the formation of the Bill of 2022 has been approved).”
The Raghubar Das-led BJP government had notified a “relaxed domicile policy” in 2016, which outlined six ways in which one can be treated as a domicile of the state. Experts had called the policy “flawed” as it did not give priority to people from tribal communities.
The second draft Bill on Reservation proposes to replace the existing quota of 26% for STs, 10% for SCs and 14% for OBCs. Cabinet Secretary Vandana Dadel said: “According to the bill, the reservation for STs will be increased to 28%, for OBCs to 27% and for STs to 12%.”
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This will take the total reservation beyond the 50% quota, which is why the state is ready to demand a central amendment.
Questions surrounding the definition of a “Jharkhandi” led to the resignation of the state’s first chief minister, Babulal Marandi, in 2002, after successive governments clarified the issue. Marandi thought it was necessary to define “Jharkhandi” to provide various benefits, including government jobs, to the local people, and made 1932 the cut-off year for proof of land records. This triggered widespread protests involving people, especially non-tribals, who had migrated to Jharkhand at a later stage.
After the Hemant Soren-led JMM-led coalition government assumed power in December 2019, JMM president Shibu Soren said that 1932 Khatian should be made the cut-off year for formulating a “local policy (residence policy).”