Ranchi: The Kendriya Sarna Samiti (KSS) and the Adivasi Sengal Abhiyan (ASA) on Sunday organised rail and road blockades at several locations across the state to demand a separate religious code for the tribals of Sarna faith ahead of the upcoming census.
In Ranchi, KSS president Phoolchand Tirkey said they demonstrated briefly on the tracks at Hazaribag and Kita stations (between Ranchi and Muri railway stations) in the afternoon.
Officials of the Ranchi railway division said the blockade at Kita railway station lasted 10 minutes and no passenger or goods trains were affected.
“Sunday’s symbolic rail roko and chakka jam were successful. If the Centre does not recognize a separate Sarna code before the census process gets underway, then the tribal people across the country will organise a massive agitation which will be bigger than the ongoing farmers’ agitation at Dekhi border,” Tirkey claimed.
ASA president Salkhan Murmu said the road blockades were taken up in East Singhbhum, Seraikela-Kharsawan and across various locations in Santhal Pargana. “Besides Jharkhand, similar blockades took place in Assam, West Bengal and Odisha. The exercise was symbolic because we did not want to cause inconvenience to anyone,” Murmu added.
On November 11 last year, the Jharkhand assembly unanimously passed a resolution and sent it to the Centre seeking a separate religious code for the practitioners of Sarna faith.
While tabling his government’s resolution, chief minister Hemant Soren had said a separate religious code will identify the exact number of Sarna followers, can help document the population of tribal people, preserve the tribal language, culture and history apart from helping them avail their constitutional rights (under the 5th Schedule) and benefits under the tribal sub-plan.
However, in the subsequent weeks, the tribal outfits criticized the state government for sending the resolution to the Centre without governor Droupadi Murmu’s approval and ratification from the tribal advisory committee, which is yet to be constituted.
Meanwhile, former Lohardaga MLA Sukhdeo Bhagat, who has joined BJP, said he will meet the Registrar General of India in New Delhi on Monday and submit a memorandum to him seeking inclusion of the Sarna religious column in the census.