M F AHMAD
Daltonganj, Sept 9: Independent MLA from Jamshedpur East Saryu Roy has termed the Murumatu episode involving Dalits’ displacement as a ‘localised issue’ for which no state canvas is needed to flare up this matter on the communal lines. He asserted that there is no room or justification for it.
He said he had a doubt and apprehension that the issue was exaggeratedly blown up across the state while on the ground, it is not even a matter of the whole of Pandu block but purely a localised one revolving around land and its dispute in regard to the ownership.
Roy said he had a long discussion with Palamu DC Anjaneyulu Dodde in this matter where the DC told him that papers and documents regarding the land are being verified as claims to it are dated 1943 or so.
“As of now, the Muslims show some government papers which entitles them the land is theirs but nevertheless, the administration is making painstaking efforts to establish the genuineness of the claim for the land by the Muslims,” Roy said quoting the DC.
The MLA said that the Palamu DC is young and is right on the job in this matter sincerely.
Roy also met the Dalits, Muslims and the elected people’s representatives. Sources said Roy is thus the lone MLA to have met the Muslims as all others who made a political pilgrimage to Murumatu and Pandu just overlooked and ignored them.
Roy said there is no communal angle to the Murumatu episode. It is purely a land issue and the land is right now under dispute. “Muslims made a big mistake. They took the law into their hands. They should have refrained from driving them out and should have taken the local administration into confidence,” he said.
The independent MLA said the Dalits did not agree to his suggestion that they should get themselves settled in the piece of land which the administration offers to them. “They are too adamant about their resettlement on the same piece of land,” he said.
Roy said the papers and documents are being verified by the administration for the Muslims’ claim of the land. If on verification, it proves true then no administration can go the extra mile to resettle these Dalits on the same land then it will be a travesty of law and justice.
However, if the land turns out to be of the government then the district administration will exercise its power and discretion, Roy added.
Again turning back to the DC, Roy said, “We in our discussions agreed to exhort the government to come up with some such inbuilt mechanism for the nomadic tribes as like that of the Bihar government which is working on the Maha Dalits there in that state.
“Jharkhand government must have separate data of nomadic tribes to launch schemes for them as we do have here for our Adim Jan Jati people,” said Roy. He favoured policy to be framed for all the Ghumantu tribes in Jharkhand.
