JMM protests decision to give pension to JP movement agitators

RANCHI: The Jharkhand Mukti Morcha ( JMM) today protested the BJP-led state government's decision to give pension to eligible people who participated in the Jayprakash Narayan movement in the mid-1970s "as it hurt the feelings of Jharkhand 'andolankaris."

"Jharkhand andolan (movement) is bigger than the JP movement. Equating both movements is not justified," JMM's working president Hemant Soren told reporters here.

Terming the state cabinet's July 21 decision to give pension to JP andolankaris (agitators) as misuse of government funds, he said the JMM would stage protest against it as it hurt the feelings of Jharkhand andolankaris.

He also criticised the state government's decision to entrust the identification of JP andolankaris with the existing "Jharkhand Vananchal Andolankaris Identification Commission" and appealed to other political parties to join the protests against the decision.

"It is a move to isolate the Jharkhand andolankaris," Soren alleged putting the issue on priority over his July 16 letter to Chief Minister Raghubar Das against his government's direction to take legal action against those interfering in government work.

In that letter, Soren had termed it as a "gag order" and demanded its immediate withdrawal, lest the JMM would launch agitation against it.

"That (letter to the Chief Minister) also stands," Soren said, hinting the issue of Jharkhand andolankaris was more important.