Jharkhand CM decision puts his government in soup

By Sanjeev Shekhar

Koda decision boomerangs in Jamshedpur bust installation matter-
This time, the Jharkhand Chief Minister, Madhu Koda, has apparently put his government in hot soup. The Chief Minister, Madhu Koda, tried his best to keep its coalition partner, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, in good humour and successfully quelled the high-voltage drama in Jamshedpur by rolling the heads of the officials over the installation of the bust of late MP, Sunil Mahato, the NDA has blown the issue to give it a new political tone on the pretext of law and order.

The government order for the removal of the deputy commissioner, East Singhbhum, Dhalbhum Sub-Divisional officer and Officer in-charge of Kadma has only precipitated the crisis further with UPA and NDA crossing swords allowing the public to give a rethink over the doings of their respective representative. The rolling of heads has proved the point crystal clear-Madhu Koda had to bow to the pressure of its ally, JMM.

Revenue Minister Order to free land from Tata lease-
While the Revenue Minister, Dulal Bhuiyan, who is acting less as Minister and more as Jharkhand Mukti Morcha activist has written buff sheet on May 10 asking the Revenue Secretary, R.S.Poddar, to order the East Singhbhum deputy commissioner, Nitin Kulkarni, to free the 10,000 square feet of land from the Tata lease, who in turn has directed the DC to do so. This land, according to the Minister, would have the bust of the late party MP, Sunil Mahato, who was gunned down by the naxals in the month of March last year.

BJP demands Judicial Probe-
Under this backdrop, the Bhartiya Janata Party has demanded a judicial probe into the entire episode and said that the government should constitute the judicial committee with the retired High Court Judge to look into the matter.

The Bhartiya Janata Party legislator from West Singhbhum, Saryu Rai, has written to the Chief Minister, Madhu Koda, demanding that with the constitution of the Inquiry Committee it should also find out “whether Jamshedpur is the steel city or the encroachment city.” He flayed the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha for acquiring land illegally and said that as per law the party should have faced the music from the law protectors. But the government has done things otherwise and removed the officials who tried to protect law.

HC order restricts construction in leased land-
The High Court has already issued a directive to the East Singhbhum district administration not to allow construction of any structure at disputed site of Kadma ground in Jamshedpur. The BJP MLA further wrote that if the government frees the land from Tata lease then in that case it should also decide to free 10,000 sq.feet each for Durga Puja celebrated by Utkal Samaj and Ganesh Puja celebrated by the locals there. “The fact is that the government can acquire land in the interest of public and the installation of bust of the late leader did not justify this,” Rai alleged.

The ‘bandh’ call given by the BJP in Jamshedpur to protest the unsavoury incident has evoked positive response as the city witnessed the downing of shutters for the entire day.

CM bowed many times before his partners-
This is not the first time that the Chief Minister, Madhu Koda, has bowed before its coalition partner and transferred the officials. Before this, there were several instances when he bowed in the wake of wishes of his ministerial colleagues and supporting allies. The latest transfer of Jamshedpur DC has proved the point as to how the government is helpless before its partners. It would be wrong to expect that any official would toe the lawful line.

*The Bokaro DC, Sunil Kumar, was shifted because the Congress MP, Chandrashekhar Dubey, did not find him fit. The officer was unwilling to fulfill the desires of the MP. Dubey took a firm stand to change the DC and the CM readily obliged him.

*The former DC of Ranchi, K.K.Sone, was removed as he was not willing to play the music as per the wish of the HRD Minister, Bandhu Tirkey. Hence the latter demanded his removal and the CM did it.

*Similarly, the DC, Palamu, Vinay Kumar Chowbey, was removed as the RJD MLA Videsh Singh wanted had crossed sword with him. The SP, Chatra was removed as the RJD MP, Dhirendra Agarwal, wanted him to go. Agarwal had threatened to resign from his post of the SP was not removed from the post. Later the MP also got the DC, Chatra, Prakash Narayan, removed from the post.

*JMM MLA Suffal Marandi got the DC, Pakur, Puja Singhal Purwar removed. Again in Simdega, the then DC, Sunil Kumar was removed from the post on the pressure of Congress MLA, Neil Tirkey. Agriculture Minister, Nalin Soren, got the secretary, Raj Bala removed. The Congress MLA, Pradeep Balmuchu had created lot of pressure on the Chief Minister to unseat Sukhdev Singh from the post of principal secretary but in vain.

Sanjeev Shekhar,

Journalist/Media Consultant/PR