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Practical problems plague creation of Jharkhand

Our Correspondent in Patna

It is easier said than done. Now that Laloo Yadav yielded to pressure and has shown his willingness to get the Bihar Reorganisation Bill 2000 approved by the state assembly, the real problems have started cropping up.

Those championing the cause for a separate state have now started conceding that there are many legal and practical hurdles are on the path.

In fact the Janata Dal-U general secretary, Mangani Lal Mandal, and party MLAs have now openly expressed their opposition to the bifurcation of Bihar. If the Union government fails to overcome such objections, then the division of Bihar could remain a distant dream.

Firstly, the division of Bihar will require the immediate delimitation of constituencies which is otherwise due in the year 2026. The proposed Jharkhand state would get 14 out of total 54 parliamentary constituencies. But Godda, Chatra, Bhagalpur and Banka are four parliamentary constituencies which will form the border of both the state. While Godda and Chatra districts go to Jharkhand, Bhagalpur and Banka districts will be the part of Bihar.

But district and parliamentary constituencies have separate boundaries. Today, some segments of Godda and Chatra Lok Sabha seats fall in the other part of Bihar. Similarly, some of the assembly segments of Bhagalpur and Banka fall within the boundary of Jharkhand. Past experiences with delimitation suggest that it would not be an easy job.

Secondly, since according to the Bill there is no provision for a bicameral house in Jharkhand, 11 MLCs hailing from that region will lose their membership. Interestingly, almost all of them belong to the parties espousing the cause of the separate state. Only time will tell whether they are prepared to pay such a price.

Though there is no provision for a legislative council in the proposed Jharkhand state, the truncated Bihar will have a bicameral house. But since the Constitution says the strength of the council should not be more than one-third of the assembly, the Bill proposes to reduce the number of council seats as well.

At present the Bihar assembly has 324 members. Once the new state is formed 81 out of them would become MLAs of that state. Thus the strength of he Bihar assembly would be down to 243. The legislative council cannot have more than 81 seats, that is one-third.

At present the upper house of the state has 96 members, which means 15 MLCs will lose their job.

Apart from legal hurdles, the Bihar government has put up the demand of Rs 200,000 crore as compensation for the loss of natural resources and assets.

Ironically, there is a mad race among the opposition parties as far as seeking compensation is concerned. The BJP has sought Rs 1,15,000 crore, Samata which initially demanded Rs 50,000 crore has almost doubled its demand. Bharatiya Jan Congress leader and former chief minister Jagannath Mishra has sought Rs 1,80,000 crore from the Centre as compensation package for the loss of Bihar's mineral wealth.

The total cash balances in Bihar's treasury and the credit balances of the state with the Reserve Bank of India and State Bank of India or any other bank would be divided in accordance with the two states' population ratio.

But there are other innumerable obstacles on way to creating a separate state. Creation of separate cadres for the IAS, IPS and Indian Forest Service and creation of Public Service Commission for the proposed Jharkhand state - Bihar already has one - are some of them.

The way different opposition parties are demanding compensation, it seems the whole exercise has less to do with reality - in fact, they want to play to the gallery. Leaders of almost all the political parties are convinced that the Centre is not going to pay a penny as compensation as it is yet to pay even a single paise of the Rs 5,700 crore the then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi promised in May 1988. Similarly projects amounting to Rs 30,000 crore inaugurated by A B Vajpayee last March are yet to take off - in a couple of cases even the land has not been acquired.

EARLIER REPORT:

Bihar seeks Rs 500bn to compensate for Jharkhand

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