Ranchi: A delegation of JMM leaders including present and former MLAs met Chief Minister Hemant Soren and handed over a memorandum demanding that a proposal be passed in favour of the Sarna religious code and send the same to center.
The members of the delegation said that Jharkhand was a tribal-dominated state and a large population follows Sarna religion but it has yet not received a separate religious code that was impacting the social and religious activities of the community.
The delegation said that the members of the community for the last many years have been agitating over the separate religious code and many tribal outfits have also handed over the memorandum to the Chief Minister in this regard therefore there was a need to take concrete steps in this regard.
The delegation said that from 1871 to 1951 there was a separate religious code for the tribals but in the census form of 1961-62 the tribal column was removed. The delegation said that in 2011 census 50 lakh people had written their religion as Sarna Code therefore in such circumstances the column of Sarna religious code should be included in the census.
Those who were present included MLAs of Dipak Biruwa, Vikas Singh Munda, Bhushan Tirkey, Sanjeev Sardar, Mangal Kalindi, former MLAs Amit Mahto and Jogendra Prasad were also present on the occasion.