Jharkhand govt notified PESA rules to favour infiltrators, alleges BJP's Champai Soren

Ranchi, Jan 6 (PTI) Former Jharkhand chief minister and BJP leader Champai Soren on Tuesday alleged that the JMM-led government has implemented the PESA rules to "favour infiltrators" and "weaken the rights of tribals".

The state government has "subtly omitted certain core phrases, such as customary laws and social and religious practices from the provisions related to the 'gram sabha' and village governance" in the Panchayats (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996, he claimed.

"The rules would enable infiltrators and religiously converted tribals to become chairmen of 'gram sabhas'. These would create division among tribal people and are not acceptable because these provisions in the rules are completely contrary to the PESA Act, 1996," he alleged.

The Jharkhand government notified the rules on January 2, after those were approved by the cabinet on December 23 last year.

“There is no need to go through the recently notified PESA rules, because the rights of tribals were compromised on the first page. It weakened the rights of tribals," the former CM claimed.

The Panchayats (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996 specifies that the self-governing system — based on customary laws, religious practices, and traditions that have existed since ancient times — shall be called the ‘gram sabha’.

"But the PESA rules notified by the state government mention only traditions while defining gram sabhas,” the BJP leader claimed.

Soren further said that the PESA rules being implemented are contrary to the 1996 Act, that this would be conveyed to the tribals, and that copies of the rules would thereafter be torn up in front of lakhs of people.

"For whom have you made these rules?" he asked the JMM government, and alleged that the administration has not even empowered gram sabhas to protect the Chhota Nagpur Tenancy (CNT) Act.

"The JMM-led government is playing with tribal society’s sentiments. Tribal society has started opposing these rules. The notified PESA rules have many loopholes and are completely against the tribals orthodox self-governance system," the former CM said.

Lok Sabha MP and former president of Jharkhand Congress, Sukhdeo Bhagat, rejected Champai Soren’s allegations and said that the notified PESA rules are based on the concept of Mahatma Gandhi’s gram sabha. The very objective of these PESA rules in Jharkhand is to protect the traditional knowledge system and customary laws of tribal communities.

Congress is a constituent of the JMM-led ruling coalition of Jharkhand.

Bhagat alleged that the BJP is continuously spreading confusion among people over the PESA rules.

“I want to say to the BJP that the PESA rules are laws and this is not some religious matter. These people are working to divide society because they know that their political ground is slipping away,” the Congress MP said.

Bhagat asked when the BJP was in power, why it had "taken lakhs of acres" into the land bank and it included land belonging to the Sarna community as well.

The BJP has no moral basis for opposing the PESA rules, he said, claiming that in comparison to other states, better PESA rules have been created and are being implemented in Jharkhand.

Over time, improvements will be made to it in the interest of the state, the MP said. PTI RPS BDC RPS NN