The BJP members today staged a protest outside and inside the House against “Islamising’ education in Jharkhand. The MLAs were also raising slogans like ‘Stop Islamisation in Jharkhand’ and ‘Stop Islamisation of Education’ among others.

The BJP members holding placards alleged that ever since the JMM/Congress government came to power, there has been a policy of appeasement. MLA Anant Ojha said that ever since this government came to power, Islamisation of the state is going on. He alleged the government of crossing the limit of appeasement for vote bank politics.

On Tuesday too, the BJP member had raised the issue. On the matter raised by BJP members, the state government had given a written reply. In a wrriten reply to BJP MLA Anant Ojha on Tuesday, the education department said that word “Urdu was added at the local level” in 407 schools across the state, while the weekly holiday was changed from Sunday to Friday in 509 schools.

At the same time, the Jharkhand government has directed deputy commissioners of all districts to take corrective measures after it noticed that the word Urdu was added to hundreds of non-Urdu primary schools in areas with a dominant Muslim population in the state, and the weekly holiday changed from Sundays to Fridays , government officials said on Tuesday.

The matter was first reported by a local newspaper last month that said the changes were made in several non-Urdu schools in Muslim-dominated areas of Jamtara district in the State.

In another development, AJSU MLA Lambodar Mahto sat on a dharna demanding the implementation of local policy on the basis of the Khatian of 1932. Justifying his demand he said that in the last budget session itself, the government had assured that a decision would be taken on the local policy by constituting a three-tier committee, but even after 4 months no initiative has been taken on it. There is a difference between the words and deeds of this government.

However, at the last Assembly session (budget), Chief Minister Hemant Soren had said that domicile policy based on 1932 Khatiyan cannot stand in Court.

Soren had said that– 1932 Khatiyan (A record of raiyats’ rights including plot number, area, quality and possession of land) cannot be the basis to decide a local.  Meanwhile, in another development The Jharkhand government today assured the Assembly to reconsider the hike in holding tax.

Replying to a question of MLA Saryu Roy in the house, the Minister-in-Charge Satyanand Bhokta said that he would discuss the matter with the chief minister and accordingly the government would reconsider it.