Jharkhand government says appointments under new recruitment rules to begin soon

RANCHI: Amid uproarious scenes in the Jharkhand Assembly, state Parliamentary Affairs Minister Alamgir Alam on Thursday said the state cabinet has approved the new recruitment rules and the process of appointment will start soon. The Jharkhand Assembly witnessed uproarious scenes on the fourth consecutive day over the employment policy, with the BJP seeking clarity over it from the chief minister.

During the call attention motion, AJSU legislator Lambodar Mahto sought to know about the fate of the 1932-Khatiyan (land records) based domicile and employment policy, passed in the House unanimously last year. Replying to Mahto, Alam said it has been forwarded to the Centre through the governor.

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"The Centre has to take a decision on this. We cannot continue to wait for it for so long. Keeping this in mind, new appointment rules were approved by the cabinet this year. "Different rules have been framed for different competitive examinations. Vacancy lists are being sought from the departments. Many such lists have already been received and the government will start the recruitment process soon," Alam said.

Earlier in the day, the BJP-led opposition continued to create a ruckus in the House for the fourth consecutive day seeking clarification over the new employment policy. BJP legislators entered the House sporting T-shirts with slogans such as '60-40 nai chalto' (60-40 is not acceptable) and '1932 ke khatiyan ka kya hua?' (What happened to the 1932 land records-based policy), despite Speaker Rabindranath Mahto's objection to such outfits. As the House assembled around 11 am, BJP MLAs trooped down to the well to press for their demands.

The Speaker started the Question Hour amid the ruckus. However, after the reply to three questions, the House was adjourned around 11.30 am till noon.

As the House reassembled, the BJP legislators continued to protest, seeking time from the Speaker to present their grievances.

To this, the Speaker said, "If you don't follow the rule of the Chair, why are you asking for time? Yesterday, it was ruled that slogan-labelled cloth cannot be worn. But you violated the rule." In the Business Advisory Committee meeting chaired by the Speaker during lunch break, it was decided that Chief Minister Hemant Soren will issue a statement over the 1932-Khatiyan based-policy during the ongoing session.

The committee also decided to prepone the conclusion of the session by one day to March 23 due to the Sarhul festival. The proceedings of the House resumed at 2 pm for a discussion on the demand for grants for the drinking water and sanitation department and was passed with a voice vote.

The state cabinet had on March 3 this year approved amendments to various rules related to the Jharkhand Staff Selection Commission (JSSC) examinations, including doing away with a clause that disallowed candidates with academic certificates from institutions outside the state to appear for it. The cabinet also gave its nod to the amendments, which among other changes, added Hindi, English and Sanskrit to the list of languages for the JSSC examination, taking the total number of languages to 15.

The opposition demanded clarification on the government's plan of introducing a 60-40 ratio for the employment system as reported in a section of the press which claimed that under a new policy, 60 per cent of seats will be reserved for various underprivileged categories while 40 per cent seats will be open for all.