Ranchi, Nov. 27: State human resource development minister and senior leader of Jharkhand Janadhikar Manch (JJM) Bandhu Tirkey today said the party has not given up its demand for “domicile policy” and would continue to mount pressure on the government for the same.

Tirkey, who climbed the political ladder by raking up the domicile issue, said the JJM would ask the Shibu Soren government to formulate a policy that will ensure only those candidates who can speak the local language are recruited as primary school teachers and constables.

“Domicile issue is still alive for us. Teachers of primary schools should know the local language for the benefit of the students,” said Tirkey. He was addressing a huge gathering at the JJM maha rally on tribal and original settlers’ rights at Morabadi grounds today.

While school and college teachers flocked to the rally with huge banners , members of the Jharkhand Pradesh Nai Samaj also participated.

The flags and posters ofvarious schools and colleges that initially outnumbered the party flags were put up at the rally venue while teachers sat at a corner along with the party workers.

Those were taken off only after an order by the minister, who made it clear that the school teachers had no place at the rally.

The participants included N.N. College in Dumka, Jubilee Mahavidyalaya in Hazaribagh, Chotanagpur College in Ramgarh, Jharkhand College in Giridih and Sanjay Gandhi Memorial College in Ranchi among others.

The Nai (barber) Samaj also wanted to register its presence at the rally as Tirkey had announced that he would appoint barbers in schools to give haircut to the students. “We came to remind the minister about his promise ,” said Feku Thakur, vice-president of the organisation. However, the participation of women was noteworthy.

Tirkey also said that no more displacement of villagers would be allowed to make way for industries in the state. “Land is the only source of livelihood for the tribals and the original settlers. If this is taken from them, they will not survive,” he said.

He pointed out that the experiences of the tribals and locals had shown that rehabilitation plans by various industrial houses like Heavy Engineering Corporation (Hatia) and Bokaro Steel plant finally did not work out as expected.

The JJM leader also said that he was ready to face a “probe” into his allegedly disproportionate assets, but added a rider.

“Let all past and present ministers give it in writing that they are ready for the probe,” he said.