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Delay in tabling of Vananchal bill likely to unleash storm

With the Vananchal bill unlikely to be taken up in the winter session of Parliament the pro-state forces in the region have decided to launch a major offensive in the immediate future. They plan to resort to bandhs and an economic blockade in 18 districts of south Bihar to vent their ire against the Centre for reneging on its assurance of clearing the Vananchal bill during the session beginning today.

The Vanjanwadi Alag Rajya Sangharsh Samiti called for holding district-level dharnas in the entire Jharkhand region to press for the introduction of the bill. Samiti leader Bhuneshwar Prasad Mehta has called upon the pro-state sympathisers to get ready for a ''do or die'' agitation in the area, if statehood was not realised in the ongoing session. Even the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha has hit the streets in protest and announced launching of a vigorous movement in the area. In the first phase of its agitation, the Morcha recently held dharnas at different district headquarters and staged a torchlight procession in Ranchi yesterday.

The Bharatiya Janata Party leaders in the Vananchal area were also shocked by the recent development, but were in no mood to openly voice their concern or press for the introduction of the Vananchal bill in Parliament.

Allegedly compelled to toe the line adopted by the Central leadership on this vexed issue, these leaders, who were in Ranchi to attend the meeting of the Vananchal Committee, could just reiterate what has already been said by their senior leaders in the past few days regarding the fate of the Bihar State Reorganisation Bill.

Hoping to see the state created at the earliest, the BJP leaders said they would request the President for ensuring early return of the said legislation from the state legislature, where it was likely to be sent soon. Holding a few party leaders from north Bihar responsible for this confusion, these leaders said, "Our failure may strengthen our rivals in the region." They were also apprehensive of the Congress and the Left forces deriving electoral mileage from this "indifferent" stand of the government on the Vananchal issue.

Meanwhile, affirming the BJP's commitment to create Vananchal, the party's state president Nand Kishore Yadav said the Bihar State Reorganisation Bill would definitely be brought in Parliament by the government as soon as the opinion of the state concerned was obtained.

To a query, he said the Bihar bandh and signature campaign launched by the Rashtriya Janata Dal against the bifurcation of the state was a last attempt made by Laloo Prasad Yadav to cover up the "misdeeds" of his party's government in the state.

UNI

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