The Jharkhand Cabinet, on 1 August, gave its nod to Jharkhand Religious Independence Bill, 2017.
According to an official release, Section three of the Bill prohibits forceful conversion. In the event of violation of section 3, there will be up to three years imprisonment or Rs 50,000 penalty or both.
If the crime involved a minor, woman or person from SC/ST then the prison term would be up to four years and a penalty of one lakh rupees, the release added.
Welcoming the proposed Bill, the BJP state unit said that forcible conversion is an anti-national act and it should be stopped at any cost.
BJP Jharkhand unit general secretary, Deepak Prakash said forcible conversion is unacceptable in a democracy, but it has been happening in Jharkhand at a large scale. He said that many of the tribals and dalits had been converted in the past and the new proposed act would certainly stop such activities in future.
Prakash said in Jharkhand the innocent poor tribals were lured with money, job, education, etc to convert and the earlier act in this regard was insufficient to stop such conversions.
He said that the proposed anti-conversion act would be strong enough to stop to forcible conversion and his party welcomes this move of the state government.
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