Ranchi: All 4,000-plus mukhiyas in Jharkhand will protest on April 12 against the Raghubar Das government's move to set up Adivasi Vikas Samitis and Gram Vikas Samitis in panchayats under respective BDOs, which the mukhiyas fear will sideline them and panchayati raj institutions.

Though Adivasi and gram vikas samitis existed on paper under panchayati raj, they did not function.

Recently, chief minister Raghubar Das decided not only to activate them, but overhaul them with 11 members in each and invest them with financial powers under the respective BDOs' supervision.

Governor Droupadi Murmu is learnt to have okayed the move, which is now awaiting notification in the state gazette.

Reacting sharply to this, state convener of Mukhiya Sangh Jharkhand, Vikas Mahto, told this paper they had filed a petition challenging the proposed state move in Jharkhand High Court on April 4. All 4,398 mukhiyas will protest outside all 290 block offices of 24 districts on April 12, he added.

"If the government does not roll back its decision after our April 12 protest, we will launch a series of agitations across all 4,398 panchayats and lay siege to capital Ranchi in coming days," said Mahto, who also happens to be the mukhiya of Dumdumi panchayat, Topc-hanchi block of Dhanbad.

"Creating parallel rural bo-dies and vesting financial po-wer in them will make panchayati raj institutions irrelevant. In our petition, to strengthen our argument, we have also attached Patna High Court's stay order on a Bihar government's earlier move to create ward vikas samitis," Mahto said.

He said when Adivasi and gram vikas samitis were first formed, they were tasked with suggesting welfare plans and schemes to mukhiyas who were supposed to take them up during gram sabha meetings.

"But these two bodies did not function. Now, the Raghubar Das government is rolling out these two samitis in a new form to bypass the mukhiya and Panchayati Raj system," he said.

"If each samiti has 11 members each and financial power rests with the BDOs, these will be purely bureaucratic governance models," he said.

Agreed Ajay Kumar, muk-hiya of Bundu panchayat of Petarwar block Bokaro. "We object to the creation of such parallel bodies in panchayats. Why are we being made irrelevant?"