Citizens’ benefit provided makeover follows constitutional and legal norms: Saryu
Mail News Service
Jamshedpur: The Jharkhand government has been pondering on converting Jamshedpur Notified Area Committee (JNAC) territory into an Industrial Town or Municipal Corporation. A meeting between the state government and Tata Steel authorities has been convened on Monday, November 2 to discuss the issue and make way for a concrete decision.
Jamshedpur East legislator Saryu Roy has cut short his election campaign in Bihar and will be in Ranchi on the appointed day as he has been in the forefront advocating for the switchover from JNAC to Industrial Town or municipal Corporation.
Meanwhile, the Jharkhand legislator was on a tour of Bihar to canvas in the Bihar Assembly elections. He addressed election rallies in Baghar, Sakraudh, Khedubigha, Saidpur and other areas but had to change his programme of addressing meetings Saharsa, Hajipur, Samastipur and Araria to attend the meeting between the state government and Tata Steel management authorities on the issue of installing Industrial Town or Municipal Corporation status in Jamshedpur command area.
Saryu Roy who will present in the crucial meeting at Ranchi on Monday, November 2 mentioned in a press communiqué that JNAC was an illegally created entity and that he had started a move against this body in March last seeking the institution of constitutional and legal body in the form and lines of a municipality. He mentioned in the communiqué that since then, he had held discussions with the Jharkhand Chief Minister, Chief Secretary and Secretary of the ministry’s Urban development Department for a changeover from the illegally operating JNAC to a Municipal Corporation or Industrial Town while adhering to constitutional and legal norms. He mentioned that finally a meeting between the state government and the Tata Steel management had been setup for November 2.
In his press statement issued on Sunday, the Jamshedpur East MLA stated, “My endeavor is to see that everything proceeds in accordance with law. Be it the government, companies, political clout holders or be it the government and administrative machineries, all should follow legal nomenclatures. If this happens, onlythen will the comman man have access to his rights. As charity begins at home, let the work of making Jamshedpur an Industrial Town or Municipal Corporation begin here. This is my urging to the government.”
According to Saryu Roy, since 1972 there had been moves on issues like Tata lease, ownership and others but every time, he contended that all regulations pertaining to revenue and land reforms were overlooked and a middle path was followed. “They made such rules and regulations instead which are constitutionally wrong and are against the purposes of land reforms,” he averred in his press release.
Roy went on to state, “The agreement thus made is full of loopholes and erroneous. Where are the provisions which will allow the common citizens a door to knock on to lodge their complaints, who will decide and provide them justice? The result has been that those with clout, those who have political strings to pull and gangsters who are experts in illegal ways are having their way thus far while the general people are reduced to the status of helpless bystanders. There is no provision made in the agreement to check the wrong doers.”
Saryu Roy pointed out that due to the loopholes in the agreement that have seen to the functioning of a body like JNAC, Jamshedpur had become a city of irregularities in following of constitutional protocols pertaining to land holding and tenancy. “Even the government machinery is helpless. It is bereft of any power to check wrongdoings. The cdurrent agreement if there is any has been seeing to millions of rupees of revenue loss to the state. My plea as a responsible representative of the people is that all norms, legalities and constitutional aspects are carefully taken into consideration while constituting a Municipal Corporation or Industrial Town in Jamshedpur so that civic rules do not take a beating. Let the deliberate or otherwise oversights that occurred in 1972, 1981, 1984, 1985 and 2005 not be repeated. My endeavor would be to ensure the citizens of Jamshedpur and the city itself are not deprived of development as they had been till now.”
The Jamshedpur East MLA stated in his press note, “The administrative machinery should ensure that the discussions in the meeting on Monday takes all legalities and constitutional notations in totality and not in bits and pieces or else, instead of solving the problems, new tangles will be created. Whether asked or not, I will put forward my points effectively in the meeting as I am the people’s representative so that the decision as outcome of the meeting should be in favor of the people, the city and the state.”