MLAs demand recognition for statehood martyrs outside the Assembly on Friday. Picture by Prashant Mitra

Ranchi, Dec. 23: Better late than never. Eleven years after Jharkhand was born, the government has decided to extend its gratitude to martyrs of the prolonged statehood movement.

Chief minister Arjun Munda on Thursday said he would provide employment to one family member of every martyr of the four-decade-long struggle for a separate tribal heartland and entitled other activists who served jail term for their motherland to a monthly pension between Rs 3,000 and Rs 5,000.

Munda made the promises on the fifth and final day of the Assembly winter session on Thursday after legislators from JMM and Ajsu — partners in the ruling alliance — stormed the well of the House to press for their long-standing demand to honour the sons of the soil.

As JMM’s Bidyut Baran Mahto, Ramdas Soren, Jagannath Mahto and Ajsu’s Kamal Kishore Bhagat, Ramchandra Shahish and Umakant Rajak sported T-shirts with messages on justice and disrupted proceedings with their very vocal protest, Speaker C.P. Singh adjourned the House thrice.

Finally, Munda said: “The government will provide jobs to dependants of Jharkhand movement martyrs. Those who served over six months in jail during the statehood struggle will be given a monthly pension of Rs 5,000, while those who served less than six months will be entitled to Rs 3,000.”

Jharkhand was carved out of Bihar in 2000 as a result of talks initiated in 1989 by then Union home minister Buta Singh. In 1956, the State Reorganisation Commission had rejected creation of a new state, but the movement never died owing to the relentless efforts of Jaipal Singh Munda’s Jharkhand Party, the JMM and the Ajsu, which once called a 72-hour bandh for a separate state. The statehood movement arguably stretched from the Fifties to the Nineties and reached its peak in late 1980s.

Vinod Kumar Bhagat, chief convener of Jharkhand Andolankari Morcha, an outfit that has taken up the cause of martyrs, welcomed Munda’s decision but with a pinch of scepticism since the state is notorious for inordinate delays.

“This is a welcome step. But I must convey a message to the Arjun Munda government to act swiftly on the promises made today by forming a policy. The government must not forget things as it normally happens. It took 11 years for the state to take a decision on this important matter. The job and pension scheme should be implemented as early as possible,” he said.

Sources said in 2003, when Munda was the chief minister and Ajsu’s Sudesh Mahto his home minister, minor cases against 200 people who had participated in the statehood movement had been withdrawn as a gesture of gratitude.

On June 25, 2008, then chief minister Madhu Koda convened an all-party meeting under the chairmanship of state co-ordination committee chief Shibu Soren to take more such measures. On August 15 the same year, the state home department brought out an advertisement asking the activists to present their claims. The last date to respond was December 31, 2008. Unfortunately, the Koda government did not survive till then.