Ranchi, June 11: Third and fourth grade government jobs should henceforth be given only to Jharkhand residents, a committee formed to frame the state’s domicile policy has recommended.
In its recommendations submitted to chief minister Hemant Soren today, the high-level committee said that those who have been residing in Jharkhand for the last 15 years or more, or are government employees, would be considered “Jharkhand Niwasis”, a criteria similar to what is being followed in Chhattisgarh that was formed along with Jharkhand in 2000.
This apart, the committee has said, that third and fourth grade jobs in various government departments should now go to only those local residents categorised as “moolvasis” or “sthaniya (original settlers)”.
Moolvasis would be of two categories — the khatiyani (those with land records and other documents) and the non-khatiyani.
While khatiyanis need to provide land details while applying for government jobs, non-khatiyanis need to get their gram sabhas to certify that their families have been residents of the state since the last three generations or more.
“We have submitted our report to the chief minister for further action,” said state finance and energy minister Rajendra Prasad Singh, who headed the committee.
Among the other members of the committee were TMC MLA Bandhu Tirkey, Congress minister Geetashree Oraon, JMM MLA Lobin Hembrom, Congress MLA Sarfaraz Ahmed, JMM minister Champai Soren and tourism minister Suresh Paswan (RJD MLA).
The committee also recommended that in 112 blocks under scheduled category, only sthaniyas should have rights over third and fourth grade employment in the government sector.
For that, it recommended a regulation — a constitutional provision under which the governor makes a law — like in Chhattisgarh.
Government officials said that it was now up to the chief minister to decide the next course of action. He could either refer it to the state Cabinet or table it in the Assembly.
The other option would be to call an all-party meeting and work towards a full consensus, given that a domicile policy has been pending for the last 13 years because of its contentious nature.
Earlier efforts to draft a domicile policy for the state always ended up in controversy.
Today’s meeting started at 4pm and went on till 7pm after which the recommendations were handed over to Hemant at his Project Building office.
