RANCHI: Ruling Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) on Monday endorsed the state government’s decision to rewrite the rules of appointment for members of the Tribal Advisory Council (TAC) stating that the change was necessary because of Governor Droupadi Murmu’s alleged unhappiness with the incumbent chief minister Hemant Soren’s government.
On June 4, the state cabinet had approved a new set of rules for the appointment of the TAC members.
The rules, notified by the government on Monday, vests powers with the incumbent chief minister for making appointments to the 18 member council.
The TAC will consist of 15 MLAs from ST assembly seats and three members who are experts on tribal affairs.
Earlier, the governor had the powers to appoint the TAC members based on the government’s recommendation.
TAC is headed by the incumbent CM as per provisions of Schedule 5 of the Constitution.
“In the past 18 months, the honourable governor madam rejected the list of TAC members recommended by the government twice.
Hence, reframing the rules was necessary,” JMM general secretary Supriyo Bhattacharya claimed.
The JMM’s response came a day after a BJP delegation met Murmu at the Raj Bhavan and submitted a memorandum challenging the new rules.
“Being the custodian of the Constitution, the governor did not intervene when the TAC functioned with a non-tribal chairman (former CM Raghubar Das), which is against the mandate of the Constitution,” Bhattacharya said.
JMM also criticized the governor for appointing the senate and syndicate members of various state universities and for giving vice-chancellors and principals of many colleges extensions in their tenure.
“The state government was consulted and BJP functionaries were offered posts.
This is not right,” Bhattacharya said.
Apprehending that Murmu’s current stance might lead to a rift between the government and the office of the governor, Bhattacharya said JMM is determined to make some necessary changes to avoid a rerun of the ongoing feud in West Bengal, where governor Jagdeep Dhankhar is publicly criticising the Mamata Banerjee government.