NEW DELHI: The tripartite talk’s on the Jharkhand tangle convened by the Center on Saturday failed to make headway in solving the decades old demand of the tribal for creation of a homeland of their own.

The meeting held against the background of 13-day economic blockade launched by the Sharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) fended after the Center agreed to place the repot of the Committee on Jharkhand Matters (COJM) in Parliament on Monday. At the talks the Center was led by the Home Minister B. Chavan chief minister Lalloo Prasad Yadav led the Bihar delegation and the Jharkhand delegation was headed by Shibu Soren and Suraj Mandal besides others.

The JMM Leaders once again rejected the proposal for setting up a Jharkhand Development Council one of the suggestions in the COJM report asserted that they would continue their stir for a separate state The COJM the IMM leaders said has also suggested the options for creation of a state or conferring the status of a union territory on the Jharkhand areas.

The Center also decided to convene a meeting of the chief ministers of the states concerned next month possibly on April 5 to discuss the issue. The demand for creation of Jharkhand state involves the states of Bihar West Bengal Madhya Pradesh and Orissa. However the Center has so far failed to persuade the chief ministers of all the four states to come to a tripartite meeting.

The JMM leaders refused to lift the economic blocked disrupting movement of coal and threatening to throw out of gear the industrial production affecting the Bokaro Steet Plan Patratu thermal power plant and TELCO. It would continue at least till Monday which will be the ninth day of the blockade they said.

While describing the decision of the home ministry to lay the COM report in Parliament as a step in right direction the Jharkhand leaders assented after the talks that there was no question of accepting the proposal for creation of a Jharkhand Development Council.

“We stand by our demand for a homeland” Soren and Mandal said.

The home ministries refused to comment on the outcome of the talks beyond saying that the talks were held in a cordial atmosphere. However a source in the ministry maintained that the minister was likely to make an announcement in Parliament on Monday on the festering problem. To that extent the talks might be described as “positive” he said.

The Jharkhand leaders would wait till Monday and hear out the government’s views Parliament.

Before chalking out further strategy. The COJM report which had so far been kept away from Parliament will be known and discussed in the supreme decision-making body and the government could no longer delay taking a stand on this they felt.

At the meeting which was held in two sessions the home minister once again suggested that he had no objection to the creation of an independent state provided the states concerned agreed to it To which the Lalloo Prasad Yadav reiterated his stand that the decision rested with the Center as the creation of a separate state would involve taking assent of Parliament and amending the constitution. The Center must therefore take the initiative in the matter.

Chavan and Yadav have tested each other’s nerves in the last few months since the home minister announced in Parliament that the Center had no objection to the formation of a separate state if the Bihar government would make a recommendation to this effect and the concerned states agreed to it. At the last Jharkhand talks held on February 18 to the two sides had maintained the same posture.

The Jharkhand leaders who watched the exchanges between Chavan and Yadav with amusement later told the home minister in the second sitting it was the for the Center to take the initive in the matter. The second session was held exclusively between the home minister and the Jharkhand leaders.

The Jharkhand leaders have been emboldened by the success of their on-going stir especially with the economic blockade which has received massive mass support. They feel that after a long time the movement for creation of Jharkhand state had hit the steam.

Violent incidents of throwing of grenade at Chandil and dynamite explosions at the Sopari airport in Jamshedpur marked the 13-day JMM-organized “economic blockade which entered the seventh day on Saturday besides severely affecting the trade business and coal consuming industries in the tribal Bihar bet.

Article extracted from this publication >> April 10, 1992