The younger Jogi’s blueprint for getting govt officers in Maoist belt

Jogi’s Removal of Vacancies and Absenteeism in Public Offices of Backward and LWE-Affected Areas Bill prescribes a maximum period of 1,000 working days for a posting in such regions. As the duration is marked by “working days”, it means the employee has to work that long in a Maoist area. After that, even if the government fails to transfer him, the bill proposes “the employee shall be deemed to have been relieved”. And if the employee fails to join within five working days of the order “without reasonable cause”, he will be “removed with immediate effect”.

To ensure those who have worked in such zones get a substantial break, the bill proposes that after completing one tenure in such a zone, an employee cannot be posted back before he completes “1,000 working days” in a non-scheduled zone (an area outside the Maoist belt).  “The major issue affecting governance in Maoist areas today is the non-serious approach of the government. The chief minister and others are not keen to provide basic services and hence allow vacancies and absenteeism to continue,” Jogi told The Indian Express.

He accuses the government of an understanding with Maoists. During his speech on the first day of the budget session Monday, he equated “Raman” (Singh, chief minister) with “Ramanna”, secretary of the CPI(Maoist)’s Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee. Referring to the recent arrests of BJP men, he demanded a CBI inquiry saying the government would scuttle the probe as “they did in the Essar case”. The Dantewada police superintendent had arrested an Essar GM and charged the company with funding Maoists, but the SP was transferred, he said.

“Earlier I thought there was a conflict between the two (Maoists and government), but now it seems there is no difference between Raman and Ramanna,” he said in the assembly.  He was interrupted by the speaker on the ground that his time was up, but leader of the opposition T S Sinhadev stood up on his behalf. “He has prepared very well. We will surrender two or three other speakers. Please give him their time,” Sinhadev said.  Significantly, the Jogi camp had staunchly opposed Sinhadev’s appointment as leader of the opposition.

It remains to be seen how Congressmen, many of whom still complain about his family’s efforts to divide the party, will take the younger Jogi. “There is no camp anymore in the Congress; we all belong to the Rahul camp,” Amit Jogi said.