The district administration in Ranchi is searching for a permanent venue to stage protests within the periphery of the State Capital in order to ensure that protestors in the State can raise their concerns and be heard without disrupting traffic movement.
The district administration in Ranchi is searching for a permanent venue to stage protests within the periphery of the State Capital in order to ensure that protestors in the State can raise their concerns and be heard without disrupting traffic movement.
The new venue, officials said, will be on the lines of Ramleela Ground in New Delhi – the permanent protest venue in the national capital.
A special team of top officials in the Ranchi district administration has been constituted to search for this protest site, which would ideally be a place from where the protestors can be visible to ministers and authorities, but not be able to disrupt daily activities in the city, Ranchi Superintendent of Police (City), Saurav, who goes by one name, said.
“Our team has shortlisted a few locations. A few places near the Vidhan Sabha and Dhurwa Chowk are among the areas that have been shortlisted so far,” said Saurav, a part of the team which has been given the responsibility of looking for this protest site. “A report will be submitted to the Ranchi Deputy Commissioner and he will take the final call,” added the city SP.
In 2017, the Delhi administration had also changed the official protest site from historic Jantar Mantar to Ramleela Ground at Ajmeri Gate – away from Lutyens Delhi – following a National Green Tribunal (NGT) directive which stated that protests at Jantar Mantar caused sound pollution.
As of now, there is no fixed venue for protests in Ranchi. Protestors here usually stage demonstrations either close to the Raj Bhawan or outside the old Vidhan Sabha building. Some protest rallies are also held at Morhabadi at the heart of the city. However, these protests often lead to traffic congestion, disrupting normal life in the state capital.
Another member of the team looking for the protest site in Ranchi said that protests played an important role in any democratic structure and people have the right to protest. However, it was the administration’s responsibility to ensure that the protests are held at a strategic location so that the demands of the protestors are heard but commoners do not face any difficulty due to it, he added requesting anonymity.
The month-long budget session in Jharkhand is set to begin on February 26, and several groups have already announced to stage protests during the session. While the 65,000 odd para teachers in the state have threatened to demonstrate during the session demanding regularization of services, some tribal outfits are also likely to stage protests demanding the inclusion of a separate Sarna code in the upcoming Census, sources said.
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