Jamshedpur Notified Area Committee officials and police on Thursday thwarted a section of political activists' attempt to grab land at a prime location in Sakchi.

The land grabbers who are also functionaries of the local temple management committee had started constructing concrete pillars on Thursday for grabbing a vast stretch of land in the name of tree plantation.

As the encroachment site was along a busy road, the matter came to the limelight in the morning, leading to the officials of the civic body to inspect the site. Soon, officials of the Tata Steel's land department also arrived at the spot. In the afternoon, the police were called in at the encroachment site and it was cleared.

The stretch of land which was attempted to be grabbed is situated at the landmark Ramlila Maidaan in Sakchi, along the Shitla Mandir Road linking the Sakchi-Sidhgora Road.

Acting briskly, the land-grabbers had dug over a dozen pits and laid foundations with iron rods and cement concert in them for constructing pillars. Apparently the construction was aimed at setting up a row of shops along the road.

JNAC's city manager, Ravi Shankar Bharti confirmed about the anti-encroachment drive that the civic body carried out with the help of police.

"The land encroachers who belong to a leading political party besides being associated with a local temple had started constructing pillars at Ramlila Maidan in Sakchi. Initially, they had engaged labourers to dig pits in, declaring that they would do tree plantation there, but later started raising concrete pillars from the pits. We have dismantled the pillar-raising work, " said Bharti while talking to The Telegraph Online.

The city manager pointed out that when the anti-encroachment drive was about to be started, the land grabbers claimed they were raising a fence for the tree plantation with an instruction of the local legislator Sarayu Roy.

"But Roy expressed his unawareness about any such tree plantation drive at Sakchi. Then only we cleared the encroachment, "the city manager said.

Sakchi thana OC, Kunal Kumar who had also reached at the said they will keep a close eye on the encroachers and ensure such anti-social act may not occur in future.