No OBC reservation for panchayat polls in Jharkhand: Alamgir Alam

Saryu Roy demands enactment of River Conservation Act to prevent encroachment of banks 

Jamshedpur, March 9: Panchayat polls would be held very soon in Jharkhand without notifying reservation for OBC.

Replying to the calling attention question posed by BJP MLA Ramchandra Chandravanshi during the ongoing budget session of the state assembly, state rural development and Panchayati Raj minister Alamgir Alam said that panchayat polls would be conducted soon without conducting a triple test.

“The state has suffered a lot due to delay in conduct of the panchayat polls. The Central government might stop the 15^th finance commission amount to the state if we do not conduct the panchayat polls. We cannot go on extending the panchayat polls. The three-tier panchayat polls will be conducted soon without the triple test. The government would conduct a triple test after the panchayat polls,” said Alam, a Congress MLA from Pakur.

The reply virtually closed the issue of reservation of OBCS in the three-tier panchayat polls in the state at least this year.

Incidentally, the Supreme Court had earlier this  year declined to recall its earlier orders quashing 27% OBC quota in panchayat polls in Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh and said the state election commissions would dereserve OBC seats in all future local body elections across India unless such quota is determined in strict compliance of  the Apex Court’s triple-test guidelines.

At the same time, JMM MLA from Chaibasa Deepak Birua demanded against holding panchayat elections in the scheduled area citing PESA law in fifth schedule areas. In response to this, Alamgir Alam said that the government would conduct panchayat elections in both fifth scheduled and non-schedule districts.

The last Panchayat polls were held in Jharkhand in November-December 2015. The tenure of the panchayats ended in December 2020. But the tenure has been extended twice owing to the Covid situations by the state government. The state government is under pressure to conduct the panchayat polls as neighboring states of Bihar, UP and Odisha have conducted the polls despite Covid situations.

Jamshedpur East Independent MLA Saryu Roy raised issue of encroachment of river banks during the discussion on grant sought by the department of drinking water and sanitation department.

Saryu Roy claimed that river are the major source of drinking water and demanded that the River Conservation Act should be made as there is large scale encroachment of rivers in urban areas. Saryu Rai also demanded a third party assessment of the schemes of the Irrigation Department.

Congress MLA Pradeep Yadav, cited  report of the groundwater directorate as worrying as worrying as ground water has gone down by 6 meters in Ranchi, Dhanbad, Jharia, Bokaro, Ramgarh and Jamshedpur.

Jharkhand minority welfare minister Hafizul Hassan said that Madrasa Board will be formed in Jharkhand within three months. Earlier madrassa is run by the education department. He also announced that the formation of Waqf Board is also under process and forming Urdu Academy.

This announcement was made in reply to the Gandey MLA Sarfaraz Ahmed question on delay in constitution of Madarsa Board.  

State rural department minister Alamgir Alam also announced during question hour that the unpaid wages of MGNREGA workers for the last three months would be paid soon.

“The honorarium of MNREGA workers of Rs 178 goes directly to their account from the central government. The state government has increased the honorarium by Rs 27 from the state head. Every month, self correspondence is being done by the Central Government regarding the payment of arrears, very soon the wages of MNREGA workers will be given,” said Alam in reply to JMM MLA Sameer Mohanty on delay in payment of MGNREGA workers.