Jharkhand government, in order to quell the ongoing agitation over language issue, removed Bhojpuri and Magahi from the list of regional languages for Dhanbad and Bokaro districts on Friday evening.
While an outfit representing people speaking the ousted languages protested against the government decision in Dhanbad on Saturday, the leaders of Jharkhandi Bhasha Sangharsh Samiti that spearheaded the agitation said they would also continue their agitation till the government agreed to consider survey settlement records of 1932 for deciding domicile issue.
“It’s good the government rectified its earlier mistake,” Vikash Mahato, a leader of the samiti, said from Dhanbad as some local groups celebrated the occasion there.
But they would continue their agitation for pursuing their other demand of considering the 1932 survey settlement records for determining who are true domicile of the area, Mahato added.
“We will do that for ensuring rights of our children in the region,” Sohrai Hansda, another samiti leader from Bokaro, said seconding Mahato.
It all started when the state government, in a modified notification issued on December 24 in 2021, included Bhojpuri, Magahi and Angika in the list of regional languages permitted for writing recruitment test to fill up district-wise vacancies of 3rd and 4th grade jobs. The test is meant for Class X and Class XII-passed candidates.
JMM supporters celebrate at Randhir Verma Chowk in Dhanbad on Saturday. Shabbir Hussain
As reported in this paper earlier, the samiti then started protesting against the decision of including Bhojpuri and Magahi in the list of regional languages for Dhanbad and Bokaro districts.
They burnt effigies of all the MPs and MLAs of the region, irrespective of their political affiliation and also formed a 40-km long human chain across those two districts for pursuing their demand.
The agitation also spread to Ranchi where another outfit, Adivasi Sena, also staged protest against inclusion of what they described as outside languages.
Even the state education minister Jagarnath Mahto supported the agitation, saying people of not a single village in those two districts spoke Bhojpuri or Magahi.
Then Congress minister Alamgir Alam accompanied by Congress state president Rajesh Thakur, JMM MLA Savita Mahto and former MLA Yogendra Mahto met chief minister Hemant Soren on Friday afternoon and requested him to consider the public sentiment on the regional language issue and take a decision that would contain the agitation.
Following this, the government issued a revised notification signed by personnel department’s principal secretary Vandan Dadel, late on Friday evening, removing Bhojpuri and Magahi from the list of regional languages of Dhanbad and Bokaro districts.
“It’s true we are concentrated in urban areas but we are also residents and voters of the region and our children should also have a right to bag local jobs,” Madan Ram of Magahi-Bhojpuri-Maithili Sanskriti Bachao Manch told The Telegraph from Dhanbad where they burnt effigies of minister Alam and others who they felt “convinced the chief minister to revise the earlier notification”.
According to the revised notification of Friday, Bhojpuri would now be considered as regional languages of Palamau and Garhwa districts only and Magahi of Chatra, Latehar, Palamau and Garhwa while Angika would be the same for six districts of Santhal Pargana.
“We will now approach the High Court for seeking a stay on the notification,” Ram further said, adding the government should have instead conducted a survey to determine the quota for different linguistic groups based on it.
