PATNA: A daylong shutdown called by all the Opposition parties in Jharkhand on Friday to protest against amendments introduced in two decades-old land laws drew considerable response from the people, who came out on to the streets in large numbers.
As many as 8,800 protesters and dozens of Opposition leaders were detained during the shutdown that witnessed sporadic incidents of arson and clashes with police. Led by leaders of Opposition parties such as JMM, Congress, JVM(P), RJD and the left parties, the protesters chanted slogans against the BJP-led state government, terming it as “anti-tribal and pro-corporate”.
The coalition government headed by Chief Minister Raghubar Das had got crucial amendments to the two laws – Chotanagpur Tenancy Act, 1908 (CNT Act) and Santhal Paragana Tenancy Act, 1949 (SPT Act) – passed in the Assembly on Wednesday despite massive protests by Opposition legislators. In their previous form, the two laws guaranteed protection of land owned by the state’s sizeable tribal population.
Opposition parties and tribal rights activists have said the highly contentious amendments that got legislative nod have paved the way for the state’s largely poor tribal people losing their small land holdings to industrial, commercial and welfare projects.
Police wielded lathi on tribal college students participating in a protest march in state capital Ranchi and also fired tear-gas shells to disperse them. JVM(P) leader and former Chief Minister Babulal Marandi participated in the march. In Dumka, JMM leader and former Chief Minister Hemant Soren marched with the protesters holding bows and arrows, the traditional weapon of the tribal people.
Nearly 25 four-wheelers were set afire at various places during the bandh, whose impact was felt considerably in districts such as Ranchi, Dumka, Bokaro and West Singbhum. In the southern town of Chaibasa, a truck laden with new coins, sent from RBI’s Patna office to Chakradharpur in Jharkhand, was vandalised by the protesters, said police.
Major political leaders who were detained included Babulal Marandi, Hemant Soren, Subodhkant Sahay of Congress and Bhubaneswar Mehta of CPI. They were released by the evening.
“The government seems keen on destroying the future of Jharkhand’s tribal people by changing these two laws. We will not let it happen. The government’s method of terrorising people by police will not work,” said Marandi, who was Jharkhand’s first chief minister when the state was carved out of Bihar in 2000.
The Opposition parties said there would be a series of similar protests across the state and that the protests would continue till the government takes back the amendments. The Das government, however, has been claiming that the changes in the tribal land laws aim at ensuring greater development in the state and improved lives of the tribal people.