The three member jury of the Jan Panchayat called by CPI (ML) on 11 November in Ranchi announced in its verdict that the only way to save Jharkhand in today’s time was by removing the Raghuvar Das led government in the state. Huge numbers of poor from rural and urban areas participated in the Jan Panchayat. Addressing the gathering, CPI(ML) General Secretary, Com. Dipankar Bhattacharya said that the central government has worked to destroy the people of the country through its decisions to introduce to Notebandi and GST. Hence, the people of Jharkhand must announce the joint verdicts of removing Modi and Raghuvar governments in the next Lok Sabha and state assembly elections. He said that the parliament is still silent on the issue of deaths due to starvation. The Raghuvar government has forced people to die of hunger by mandatorily linking Aadhaar with the DBT.
CPI(ML) Jharkhand state secretary Com. Janardan Prasad said that amendment bill in the Land Acquisition Act is a conspiracy to hand over Jharkhand’s land, forests and water into the hands of the corporate. The claims of development have now proved to be ‘jumlas’. The state of Jharkhand has been reduced to a pasture for looting. Employment schemes for the poor have also been converted into plans for looting the people. Instead of addressing the basic concerns of the people, the state government of Jharkhand is trying to incite communal tensions and make minorities the target of communal violence by bringing in the Jharkhand Religious Independence bill.
The ex-MLA and CPI(ML) CC member Com. Vinod Singh said that the Raghuvar government has managed to convert all welfare schemes into schemes for robbing the poor. This is the reason that nearly 20 lakh poor have been deprived of the ration card. By linking the same to Aadhaar card, the government has made it impossible for the poor to gain regular food grains and hence there is a considerable rise in the deaths from hunger. In the last 1 month there have been 2 deaths in Garhwa, 1 in Devghar, 1 in Dhanbad and 1 in Gumla. He also said that the religious independence bill is an attack on the freedom of religion. The people of the Jharkhand have to now give a decisive verdict.
The three member jury comprised of Prof. Jean Dreze, Tridev Ghosh and Basheer Ahmad. During the Jan Panchayat, Hira Gope, Bhubaneswar Bediya, Jarannath Oraon, Mahesh Sugdev and several others spoke. The Jan Panchayat was chaired by Vishwanath Gupta and was moderated by Ranchi CPI(ML) district secretary Com. Bhuvaneshwar Kewat.
