Even as the ground work is yet to begin for the establishment of the Industrial Manufacturing Sector in Bokaro planned under the ambitious Amritsar Delhi Kolkata Industrial Corridor project, the local residents of Bhatua Panchayat of Bokaro staged a protest apprehending land loss without adequate compensation.

A meeting of Van Adhikar Samiti of Bhatua Panhchyat was held in the local Kali Temple campus under the chairmanship of Lakhiram Manjhi, president of the Samiti during which more than 200 local residents took part and expressed their ire over the land survey being carried out in their area without taking them into confidence.

The participants of the meeting, including Hemant Marandi, Vice President of the Van Adhikar Samiti, further also petitioned the district administration and state government against the alleged attempt to grab their land in the name of establishing new industries depriving them of their sole source of sustenance.

Talking to The Telegraph Online after the meeting, Dhananjay Manjhi, a local resident of Bhatua Panchayat who participated in the meeting held today, said, “Our ancestors have been ploughing the land since several generations and we are not going to let go of the land as we have been taken for a ride before regarding land acquisition with regard to establishment of Iron and Steel Industry of Bokaro Steel Limited (BSL)”.

“The land surveyed by BSL officials recently along with the state government official for the establishment of the Industrial Manufacturing Cluster is not owned by BSL and rather belong to us and thus any survey of the land without giving any information to the land holders is not valid,” said Manjhi while adding that they are not going to allow any construction of industry on their land.

“We will be holding a meeting again on December 29 which is expected to be attended by more than 3,000 people and during which the issue will be discussed and future course of action decided in the wake of unilateral steps being initiated by the Bokaro Steel Limited and district administration to acquire their land in gross ignorance of the land owners,” said Manjhi.

Notably, a joint team of state government and Bokaro Steel Limited led by Jitendra Kumar Singh, State Industry Director and comprising other officials, including Kuldeep Chaudhary, Bokaro, Deputy Commissioner, carried out a survey of BSL land on December 8 at Bhatua, Dhandabra and near the Garga Bridge of Bokaro for proposed establishment of Industrial Manufacturing Clusters for which around 1000 acres of land is required.