Mail News Service
Jamshedpur, Jan 9: Documentary filmmaker, Saurabh Vishnu, whose documentary film, ‘Tailing Pond’ projected the catch-22 situation that the residents of Jadugoda were faced with in view of the effluence of Uranium Corporation of India Ltd (UCIL) in the waters and environment in general, was nominated for the Oscar Award, is now focusing on the denial of the constitutional right to exercise the ‘Third Vote’ for the Jamshedpur residents.
During an interaction with the media, Vishnu said, “In June last year, I met MLA Saryu Roy who introduced me to civil rights’ activist, Jawahar Lal Sharma. My meeting with him and subsequent rounds of discussions helped me in understanding the complications around the Jamshedpur Notified Area Committee (JNAC) that included the denial of the constitutional right of the Third Vote factor to the people of Jamshedpur. Ever since the country’s independence, the citizens of Jamshedpur have been denied the right to exercise their Third Vote. In fact, Jamshedpur is the only city in the world where citizens are deprived of their constitutional right to elect a representative from their colony who will place their problems before the authorities concerned and seek a panacea to remove such glitches.”
The documentary filmmaker, during his discussion with the media observed, “The matter becomes more intriguing when we try to seek an answer to ‘why is it so?’ This poser led me to wonder why, in spite of a Jamshedpur with its wide, tree-lined roads and pathways, 24×7 clean water and power supply plus all other facilities the citizens were denied their Third Vote rights? In my pressing desire to seek a solution to this poser, I met residents of several localities that were out of the purview of Tata Steel operational areas and tried to learn about the history of 100 years of the city. I went through several related books authored by noted national and international intellectuals.” Saurabh Vishnu said that he had rationalized the observations of a cross section of general citizens, political leaders and social workers in his script. He said that almost 80 percent of his forthcoming documentary film had been completed and that he expected it to be released by 2023 end or early the following year. Several political leaders and other persons who matter have given their bytes and some more have agreed to give their views on converting JNAC into a Municipal Corporation.