Insaf Morcha Convener's Statement, 5 April, 2000

"The creation of proposed Vananchal (Jharkhand) State consisting of 18 districts of Bihar will not serve the real interests and legitimate aspirations of the tribal people of Chhota Nagpur for two basic reasons:

1) In the proposed State, the tribal population will be only 30% of the total population and, therefore, the State shall be controlled by the non-tribal people.

2) The tribal people of contiguous areas in Orissa and MP shall be left out.

I have studied the pattern of distribution of tribal population in this area.

I find that in Bihar, only the districts of Lohardaga, Gumla, Ranchi and W. Singhbhum have a tribal majority along with some contiguous tribal majority blocks of neighbouring districts E. Singhbhum and Palamau. They should form the core of the tribal state. The final delimitation of the boundary can be close with revenue villages as the unit on the basis of contiguity and tribal majority. The adjacent tribal majority areas of Orissa [the whole or part of districts of Mayurbhanj, Keonjhar, Sundargarh and Sambalpur] and MP [the whole or part of Raigarh and Surguja] should form part of the proposed State, alongwith contiguous tribal areas of W. Bengal.

There is another tribal pocket in Bihar consisting of . Rajmahal district with contiguous tribal majority blocks in Dumka and Godda. This is largely a Santhal area. There is no physical continuity between the two tribal pockets of Bihar. Also their ethnic character is different. Therefore, Santhalistan may form a Scheduled Area within Bihar.

In sum, Insaf Morcha proposes:

1)- Establishment of a tribal-majority State, carved out of Bihar, Orissa, MP and W. Bengal.

2) Establishment of a Scheduled Area for Santhals in Eastern Bihar.

 Both the units should be delimited on the principles of tribal majority and contiguity and revenue village as the unit, beginning with districts, adding contiguous blocks and then revenue villages of tribal majority.

It is possible that some non-tribal majority blocks or villages maybe included, if they are embedded within tribal majority area and excluded, if they are on the border and not completely surrounded by the tribal units.

Such reorganisation alone will quench the fire of discontent in the tribal areas, I will make the tribals masters of their land and its resources, give them the authority to utilise their income and d central allocations for their development according to their priorities.