Jharkhand Speaker Rabindra Nath Mahto constituted a seven-member committee on Thursday, the concluding day of the monsoon session of the Assembly, to evaluate his decision to allocate a separate room for namaz within the Assembly precincts, giving it 45 days to present a report with suggestions on the issue that has snowballed into a major controversy with the Opposition BJP blaming the Hemant Soren government for resorting to "appeasement politics".
The members of the committee are Stephen Marandi, Sarfaraz Ahmed (JMM), Vinod Singh (CPI-ML), Lambodar Mahto (Ajsu), Deepika Pandey Singh (Congress), Pradeep Yadav (Independent) and Neelkant Singh Munda (BJP).
“Even though the committee has a deadline of 45 days to submit its report but I would welcome it if it gives the report earlier," Mahto said.
Earlier in the day, a BJP delegation met governor Ramesh Bais and handed over a memorandum seeking his intervention on the namaz room issue and complained against Wednesday's police lathicharge on its supporters.
There was pandemonium in the Assembly over the issue on Thursday too, the conculding day of the monsoon session. Amid the bedlam, the House cleared four more bills, namely, Jharkhand State Open University Bill 2021, Jharkhand Panchayati Raj (Amendment) Bill 2021, Jharkhand State Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (Amendment) Bill 2021 and Finance Bill- 2021 without any debate or discussion.
Speaking to the media in the evening, chief minister Hemant Soren condemned the BJP for creating trouble in the Assembly over anon-issue. “But I thank the Assembly Speaker for the way he conducted the House to maintain the dignity of MLAs of all parties. The state saw how the BJP tried to create social unrest. People will evaluate it. All I want to say is that this is the Assembly, the highest seat of democracy and a temple of people of all faiths, not a ground for gulli-danda,” he said.