The Hemant Soren government in Jharkhand may soon face opposition from some of its own people.

Congress MLA Bandhu Tirkey gave such a hint while speaking to journalists at his Ranchi residence on Sunday, adding he would soon announce the next course of action if the state government continued to sit on the recommendations of a report they had submitted earlier.

The report he mentioned was submitted by a special committee appointed by the Speaker of the Jharkhand Assembly and related to denial of promotion to state government employees belonging to scheduled castes and scheduled tribes who were senior to even those belonging to general category who were promoted.

“After I had raised the issue in the state Assembly in March 2020, the Speaker appointed a special committee with (JMM) MLA Deepak Birua as its convener to look into the matter,” Tirkey informed, adding two other MLAs — Neelkanth Singh Munda of the BJP and Sarfaraz Ahmad of the Congress — were the members of the committee while he (Tirkey) was also inducted as a special invitee.

The committee submitted its report to the Speaker in February this year and the Assembly secretariat sent it to the government in June.

The government also got it studied by a group of senior officials and the chief minister who had earlier stopped the promotion process at the request of the committee also agreed to implement its recommendation, Tirkey informed.

“But nothing has been done so far,” he further said, adding several SC-ST employees of the state had meanwhile retired from service without getting the financial benefits that they were actually entitled to.

The irregularities in promotion policy began when the commercial taxes department encouraged the practice of irregularly promoting general category officials superseding their seniors who belonged to SC and ST in 2008, he further informed, adding many also moved the court for seeking justice.

“This happened due to irresponsible behaviour of some senior officials and I wonder how they dared to disobey the orders of the chief minister of the state and put it in the cold storage” Tirkey further said.

He also demanded that an inquiry be held to find out the erring officials and action initiated against them under the SC ST Atrocities Act.

“If the government doesn’t act on the report of the committee within a week, SC-ST MLAs of the state will be forced to take the path of agitation,” Tirkey declared.

“I’ll soon inform you all about the next course of action,” Tirkey replied when asked about the nature of agitation they planned.