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Pro-Jharkhand forces threaten to cut off region

The pro-Jharkhand forces today threatened to ''delink Jharkhand region from the rest of the country by disrupting all communication systems'' if the legislation seeking creation of Jharkhand was not tabled by the Centre in the ongoing session of Parliament.

The pro-Jharkhand forces, particularly the Jharkhand People's Party and the All Jharkhand Students Union have also asked the 12 Bharatiya Janata Party members of Parliament from the region to resign en masse from the Lok Sabha, fulfilling their earlier commitments.

JPP working president Devsharan Bhagat charged the Bharatiya Janata Party with "betraying'' the people's cause and allowing the ruling Rashtriya Janata Dal's "jungle rule'' to prevail in this tribal belt. He also accused the Centre of helping in disguise the pro-Rashtriya Janata Dal Laloo Prasad Yadav forces by not taking up the Jharkhand issue on a priority basis.

The BJP MPs and legislators in Bihar, at a meeting of the party senior leaders held few days ago had reportedly threatened to resign from Parliament and the state legislature if the Jharkhand bill did not come up in the Lok Sabha despite an assurance by the Centre. The said meeting was presided over by party's national vice-president, Karia Munda and convened by BJP local MP Ramtahal Choudhary.

Bhagat said the situation in the entire 18 districts of Jharkhand would turn violent if the state was not created during the winter session. The three pro-Jharkhand parties have sponsored a hundred-hour economic blockade, which was still going on in the region, to mount pressure on the Centre for tabling the Bihar State Re-organisation Bill 1998, he said.

The pro-Jharkhand forces have also appealed to the Congress members of Parliament from the region to build pressure inside the House on the BJP government.

''The BJP, by not taking up the Vananchal issue in its priority list despite having assured to create the state in the national agenda of governance, has played with the sentiments of over 30 million people living in this area,'' they alleged.

Doubting the Centre's intentions, they even announced that they would launch a mass movement from December 6 if the legislation failed to come up by December 4.

Even the JMM-Soren, which had earlier adopted a soft stand towards the Centre expecting that the bill was likely to be introduced in Parliament during the winter session, today announced that it would launch a ''mahasangram'' in the 18 districts if the BJP-led government failed to clear the bill in the ongoing session.

UNI

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