RANCHI: The state Congress unit on Sunday organised a rally here for thousands of displaced people living in villages around the Heavy Engineering Corporation (HEC) area to highlight the issues faced by them.
While party leader and Mandar MLA Bandhu Tirkey demanded the government to set up a commission for the displaced villagers, state Congress president Rameshwar Oraon, citing a clause in the Land Acquisition act, 2013, demanded HEC to return unused land to the villagers. Oraon also spoke in favour of total implementation of the Land Acquisition act, which was enacted during the UPA regime to safeguard rights of land owners against acquisition for industrial and other development purposes.
Addressing the gathering, Oraon said, “The Land Acquisition act consists of a provision that if land acquired for industrial and other developmental purpose is lying unused for a prolonged period of time, then the plot must be returned to its owner. Recently, our government returned vast chunks of land to villagers in Hazaribag who had given the plots to National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC). HEC should follow in NTPC’s footsteps and return unused land.”
He criticised the PSU for selling the plots acquired for industrial purpose and said, “Rourkela Steel Plant had returned 5,000 acres of unused land to the Odisha government. Why can’t HEC do the same? Instead, it is selling it to private parties who are now acting like landlords. I appeal to the chief minister to initiate the necessary steps to take back the unused land from HEC immediately.”
He added that those living across 32 villages around the HEC area have been neglected for long and appealed to them to fight for their rights. “The fight should be through democratic means,” he said.
Bandhy Tirkey said it’s high time that the state government set up a commission for the displaced. “The commission will not only work for those displaced by HEC but will be a constitutional authority which will work for the cause of all displaced people in Jharkhand,” he added.
Former Union minister Subodh Kant Sahay, who was also present at the rally, mentioned that he has been fighting for the cause of those displaced by HEC for years and recalled the time when he boycotted the foundation stone-laying ceremony of the state assembly building in solidarity with the villagers.
The rally was also attended by Khijri MLA Rajesh Kachchap and the party’s co-working president, Rajesh Thakur, among others.