New Delhi, March 10: Arjun Munda has said his government would not bow to political pressure and amend the Chotanagpur Tenancy (CNT) Act to lift restrictions on transfer of land belonging to Scheduled Tribes/Scheduled Castes and Backward Classes.
After a round of golf in Noida yesterday, the chief minister lobbed the ball in the landholder’s court. “Let the community who owns the land demand its (CNT Act) amendment. It is impractical to force an amendment when the demand to do so comes from those who don’t own the land. Besides, sale of land in scheduled areas to non-tribals is prohibited under Schedule 9 of the Constitution,” Munda told The Telegraph after teeing off with Oman’s oil and natural gas minister Mohammed bin Hamad al Rumhi.
He explained that a Jharkhand High Court verdict on January 25 had clarified the application of the law to land owned by members of 51 Other Backward Castes, too.
According to the act, a tribal may transfer his land through sale, exchange, gift or will to a fellow ST member and residents of his own police station area. Similarly, SCs and BCs can transfer land to members of their own community within the limits of the district in which the land is located with prior permission of the deputy commissioner.
“The JVM’s pressure to amend the act is their attempt to douse the fire their leader lit with the domicile issue,” Munda said, referring to JVM president and former chief minister Babulal Marandi’s 2002 policy of giving job preference to those whose ancestors had settled in Jharkhand before 1932.
Demonstrations for and against the policy — which the high court later quashed — led to deaths due to police firing. Marandi was then Munda’s colleague in the BJP.
Munda also opined that by threatening to stall the budget session of the Assembly to push for amending the CNT Act, Marandi was aiming to build bridges with migrants to expand his vote bank. “The budget session is for healthy discussion and not throwing chairs and microphones and stalling the Assembly,” he added.
The chief minister added that he expected the railway budget to include lines to mineral-rich areas in the state.
“The government also needs to equitably distribute resources to all parts of Jharkhand and not just the Naxalite-affected districts. I am not viewing this from the prism of a non-Congress CM. The Centre should see our revenue and agricultural yields and the level of development. We need special status (which include tax breaks) to enable investments to the state.”
Munda declined comment on when his government would devolve powers to the panchayats. He said: “Panchayats need to be converted from centres of distrust to centres of trust. When people need anything, they go the mukhiya and not the MLA. That is why skill development of panchayat leaders is more important. Devolution does not simply mean giving a lal batti gaadi (beacon-fitted car) to a mukhiya. Real devolution will happen soon.”
When asked about the outcome of his friendly duel with the Oman minister, Munda signed off, “I wasn’t keeping track of the score.”
