NEW DELHI: The all Jharkhand Students Union (AJSU) and the Jharkhand Peoples Party (J P) Thursday threatened to set up a parallel Jharkhand Government if the Center failed to create a separate Jharkhand state June 22.

Talking to reporters here JPP Secretary Surya Singh Besra who is also a member of the students union said the Centre must immediately implement the report of the expert committee on Jharkhand.

He was of the view that the Center should set up another commission on the reorganization of states so that a peaceful solution could be found to demands for separate states being raised in different parts of the country.

“Jharkhand must be created before there is any bloodshed or violence on the issue” Mr. Besra said. He recalled that the demand for a Jharkhand State was rejected in 1956 on account of “certain difficulties.” But these problems have now been removed and even the expert committee on Jharkhand had recommended that a separate state be carved out of the areas inhabited by Jharkhandis in Bihar Orissa Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal He asserted that anything less than full statehood would not be adequate to fulfill the aspirations of the Jharkhandis.

The Jharkhand region he said had remained economically backward because it was divided among four states. “The efforts on the part of the center for a balanced development through the mechanism of the fifth schedule have utterly failed to deliver the goods and the people are not ready to wait any longer” he said.

Mr. Besra said that the proposed “Jharkhand state” would commence 25 districts of Bihar West Bengal Orissa and Madhya Pradesh and it would be in accordance with the report of the committee on Jharkhand matters (COJM).

He said the Center should desist from what he called dilly-dallying tactics on the vexing issue and introduce a bill in parliament for separate statehood. Asked about the three options suggestions by the COJM autonomous council on territory and separate statehood to solve the tangle Mr. Besra said nothing less than separate statehood would be acceptable.

Article extracted from this publication >> April 24, 1992