The entire Jharkhand is on the boil over anti-encroachment drive being carried out on Jharkhand High Court’s orders. in Ranchi, Jamshedpur,Bokaro and Dhanbad.
Though the court did not specify the areas to be cleared in anti-encroachment drive, bull dozers were pressed into service for more than a fortnight ago by the district administrations in Ranchi,
Jamshedpur, Bokaro and Dhanbad in razing the slum colonies, khatals and shops, leaving the buildings most of which do not have sanctioned plans from the appropriate authorities.
Official sources said that in Jharkhand nearly 1.70 lakh buildings were built without sanctioned plans. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is scrutinizing 3,600 building plans under high court orders. The investigating agency seized many maps and files of buildings from the office of the Ranchi Regional Development Authority (RRDA), the plan sanctioning agency.
Till date over 20,000 people have been rendered homeless and spending the nights on the rubbles under open sky. The state machinery did not provide any relief like tarpaulins, food and medicine to the evicted people.
Meanwhile, about a dozen organisations have floated an umbrella outfit, Jharkhand Bachao Nagarik Abhiyan to express solidarity with those affected by the ongoing encroachment drive.
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The outfit demanded Rs 10 lakh and a government job to the kin of those killed in police firing during the anti-encroachment drive.
Senior BJP leader and former external affairs minister Yashwant Sinha sat on an indefinite dhara in the state capital on Sunday for protecting the shelter of the poor.Sinha who is also MP from Hazaribagh told media that he had given six suggestions to the chief minister Arjun Munda a couple of days before. He said the poor should be rehabilitated before they were thrown out.
BJP Ranchi MLA and Assembly Speaker CP Singh, former BJP MLA from Jamshedpur Sarju Rai, former Jharkhand chief minister Babulal Marandi and number of Congress leaders including Ranchi MP Subodh Kant Sahay have been protesting on the ongoing anti-encroachment drive across the state.
Meanwhile, while hearing a PIL submitted by one of the residents of Islam Nagar slum colney of the state capital, Jharkhand High Court on Tuesday ordered the state government to rehabilitate the residents of Islam Nagar who had been living there for over 20 years and uprooted from their homes during anti-encroachment drive on April 5. During hearing, the division bench observed that the state administration had targeted the slum colonies, leaving the big buildings which were erected without sanctioned plans. The state’s advocate-general (AG) in his oral submission before the court said that the state cabinet in its April 18 meeting decided to prepare a rehabilitation plan for the people who had been displaced in anti-encroachment drive.