Opposition members on Thursday created a furore in the Jharkhand Assembly over the state's cabinet decision to include village panchayats in Ranchi master plan 2037, saying that it was primarily an urban initiative and would have negative impact on residents of rural areas.
The matter was raised during a call attention motion brought by JMM legislators Stephen Marandi, Deepak Birua and Ravindra Nath Verma, which was seconded by many other Opposition members.
Birua wanted to know how village panchayats of Ranchi district, which fell among the Fifth Schedule areas, could be included in the master plan in violation of the Constitution.
"Ranchi comes under Fifth Schedule area and before including any panchayat in the urban fold, the consent of the gram sabha/mukhiya concerned has to be taken. This is a matter of grave concern as it is tantamount to violation of the Constitution," Birua asserted.
The same issue had prompted residents of many villages located on the fringe areas of the state capital to take out a protest rally last week. These include Daladali, Soparam, Gurtua, Husir, Bhusur, Pundag, Kute and Neori villages among others.
Batting for the state government, urban development and housing minister C.P. Singh said that the villages were part of Ranchi Sadar circle, Nagri, Kanke, Namkum, Ormanjhi and Angara. He also pointed out that at least 38 of them were currently in Ranchi Sadar circle and have an "urbanised look".
"Population of Ranchi city is growing and many fringe areas now resemble a continuous patch of capital city. The government intends to provide urban civic amenities in such areas. It is a different matter altogether that Ranchi district comes under Fifth Scheduled area. But our intention is to provide better civic amenities to people," he said.
Speaker Dinesh Oraon referred the matter for perusal of the Assembly's select committee.
The Raghubar Das cabinet approved the master plan for Ranchi on November 24. Spread over 652.02sqkm, it envisages all 55 wards of Ranchi Municipal Corporation, 14 fringes under Ranchi Regional Development Authority and 184 village panchayats.
Against the existing population of around 13 lakh, the plan projects people's count of 31.58 lakh by 2037.
