Ranchi
It took the tribals three decades of unrelenting struggle to make the State Government finally relent. Chief Minister Hemant Soren on Wednesday ultimately refused to grant further extension to the Army’s Netarhat Field Firing Range.
Spread over 408 square kilometers, setting up of this firing range was notified in1964 under Section 9 of Maneuvers Field Firing and Artillery Practice Act of 1938. Other similar firing ranges that were set up almost simultaneously include the ones in Rewa (Madhya Pradesh), Sameepet (Andhra Pradesh) and Koilat (Rajasthan).
The Netarhat Field Firing range encompasses scores of villages belonging to Latehar and Gumla districts, all under Fifth Schedule of the Constitution, including 39 Revenue Villages of Latehar district, where Panchayati Raj Extension to Scheduled Areas Act has been in force since 1996. This law guarantees self rule by the Gram Sabhas.
Amidst tireless protests by the villagers, including the ones belonging to Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups like Asur, Birjia and Korwa, the Army hadn’t been conducting firing practices here since 2003, even though the erstwhile Bihar government in November 1999 given extension to this field firing range that expired on May 11, 2022. One Wednesday, Hemant Soren refused to grant further extension to this pilot project.
The official communiqué from the IPRD department said, “Considering the struggle of thousands of adivasis against this project since the last 30 years, Chief Minister Hemant Soren has decided not to re-notify Netarhat field firing range. The move has been taken in public interest.”
On March 22 and 23, 2021, the tribals had also staged protests before the Raj Bhavan in Ranchi. Their memorandum to then Governor Droupadi Murmu had also cited incidents of gang-rape and sexual harassment of village women apart from loss of life and property during firing practices in the past.
“With Murmu as the country’s constitutional head now and also the custodian of Scheduled Areas, Hemant Soren perhaps sensed bigger problems ahead, if he did not act judiciously now,” a senior official said.
A senior Army officer opined that most of the Army establishments across Jharkhand were now based at prime locations in different cities. “These need to be relocated to remote areas so as to enable the Army smoothly carry out its routine exercises and other business,” he said.
“For example, in Ranchi, we aren’t able to make the best use of our firing range Bariatu or the space available in Morhabadi, Kanke Road and the likes. We repeatedly requested the state government to relocate us and give us lands proportionate to market value of these prime lands. But, there has been no significant breakthrough as yet,” he elaborated.
