The Jharkhand government tabled the first supplementary budget of this fiscal during the second day of the monsoon session of the state Assembly in Ranchi on Monday amid a protest by ruling party members against Manipur violence.
Congress senior leader and state finance minister Rameshwar Oraon presented the supplementary budget of Rs 11,988 crore for the financial year 2023-24 in the afternoon. However, there could not be a discussion on the supplementary budget as Speaker Rabindra Nath Mahato adjourned the House till Tuesday amid sloganeering from Opposition BJP MLAs and ruling party MLAs.
As soon as the proceedings of the House began on Monday Congress MLA from Poreyahat Pradeep Yadav raised the issue of ethnic strife in Manipur and blamed the “double engine sarkar” of the BJP (a term used by BJP leaders for governance at both the Centre and the state) for it.
Congress MLA from Mahagama Deepika Pandey Singh expressed shock at
the silence of the BJP leader and claimed that only a few videos of Manipur violence have gone viral whereas
the actual scenario is far
more dangerous.
“Sisters and brothers are being murdered and beheaded, women are being raped, girls are being molested. This is not acceptable at all. The Modi government is responsible for all this,” she said.
Congress MLA from Jamtara Irfan Ansari said that “INDIA” will come to power in 2024 and “Narendra Modi will lose his chair. We will get justice done for the sisters of Manipur. Rahul ji is back, INDIA is back and Modi ji is gone,” said Ansari who was among the three Congress MLA caught with cash in Calcutta last year and whose suspension was revoked by the Congress earlier this month.
This led to an uproar from the BJP MLA forcing the adjournment of the House till noon.
BJP MLAs staged a sit-in protest outside the House demanding policies to define locals in the state, reservation for OBC and an employment policy for the youths whereas INDIA constituent parties demonstrated outside the house carrying placards condemning violence in Manipur.
Incidentally, the JMM-Congress-RJD-led Jharkhand government has announced re-tabling three Bills in the monsoon session which would continue till August 4.
“The Bills pertaining to the land survey based local policy, OBC reservation and mob lynching prevention bill, will be put again in the assembly. All these three bills have been returned by the Governor for reconsideration after they were sent for approval,” said a communique issued by the chief minister’s secretariat last week.
Significantly, the then governor Ramesh Bais on March 2022 returned the anti-lynching Bill back to the state government with two specific suggestions, including reconsidering the definition of ‘mob’ which was “not in consonance with the well-defined legal lexicon or glossary”.
Later in January, this year, Bais also returned the 1932-Khatian (land survey)-based Local Policy Bill-2022 passed by Jharkhand Assembly asking the government to review its legality so that it is in accordance with the constitution and as per orders passed by the Supreme Court.
Again in April, this year, the newly appointed governor C.P. Radhakrishnan returned the OBC reservation bill seeking an increase in the reservation in government jobs and educational institutions up to 77 per cent.