Sahibganj (Jharkhand): "We will give life but we won't give away our lands. We have everything including documents related to the land and the proof of citizenship," said one of the members of 600 Hindu families, who have been asked to vacate their houses that they have been living in for close to 60 years now.
On Wednesday, the Jharkhand High Court issued directives to the district administration to vacate the houses of people, most of whom are Hindus, who migrated from Bangladesh, by March 17th here at East Narayanpur that falls under the Radhanagar police station limits of Rajmahal sub-division area.
The issue dates back to 1965 when persecuted Hindus in Bangladesh (east Pakistan then) decided to take refuge in India. In 1971, under Indira Gandhi's leadership, they were provided home-like residential flats along with the citizenship of India by the central government.
In fact, Bihar's then chief minister late Karpoori Thakur had handed over to these residents the required legal papers for the land which bonded them lawfully as the owners of the land. The unexpected twist to the story happened when the regulations pertaining to land changed post Bihar's partition and the people came under the new regulations of Jharkhand.
The locals claim to possess all the papers and are questioning the administrative intrigue in the entire saga of the story that has come to a point of making them homeless. "Deliberately people are troubling us," a local said. So far, a cause of vexation amongst people is 60 years that they have been living, building housing, and earning their livelihood from the same land that has caused a storm in the area now.
The land, which still is un-surveyed, is roughly spread across over 1500 acres had the locals fumed after the court's notice and they disrupted the police's attempts at carrying out the measurement survey, a process required for the regulation of the land.
According to the findings, when Sub Divisional Officer (SDO) Roshan Kumar, reached the area to carry out the survey, the locals deranged the work of the officers. Although, the Deputy Commissioner of the area has said that no one from the area under the lens will be displaced even as some portion of the land will be surveyed.
On the other side of the penumbra, the Muslim community too are facing the heat, having fought for the land earlier to a notice by the court to vacate their lands by March 17th. The Hindu community claim that most of them are Bangladeshi migrants and are creating "trouble" for them.
So far the only breather came from SDO Kumar. "At present, no one will be removed." And he added, "the land has to be measured as per the orders of the High Court."
