All 95 illegal structures in Rajiv Nagar demolished: District administration

PATNA: Hundreds of people staged a dharna at Rajiv Nagar soon after the Patna district administration team and police personnel reached the venue with bulldozers and poclain hydraulic vehicles to raze the alleged illegal structures on the second day of the anti-encroachment drive on Monday.
However, the Patna high court at 4.30pm stayed the anti-encroachment drive till July 6 and not to take any penal action. However, the district administration, in a statement issued before the court order, said all the 95 illegally constructed structures had been demolished till 4pm on Monday. About 50 acres of land has been taken over by the administration.
Patna DM Chandrashekhar Singh has asked the circle officer, Patna Sadar, to fence the land. He said a board should also be put that the land belongs to the Bihar State Housing Board (BSHB), so that people should beware of the land mafias and touts.
Earlier, the police resorted to lathicharge to disperse the protesters, who obstructed the administrative work. Several people got injured. Nine persons were arrested for violating Section 144 of the CrPC imposed in the area following the violent clash on Sunday. Four FIRs have been lodged, including two on Monday, against 26 named accused and 300 unidentified persons for disrupting government work and creating nuisance.
JAP (Loktantrik) chief Rajesh Ranjan alias Pappu Yadav, along with his party workers and the residents, sat on a dharna on the approach road leading to the locality at 6am, when the district authorities reached Rajiv Nagar to demolish the remaining 20 structures, allegedly built illegally on the 50 acres of land belonging to the BSHB. The protesters raised slogans like ‘Hum leke rahenge azadi’ against the Nitish Kumar-led government.
The residents claimed that two persons allegedly died due to heart attack on Sunday after their houses were demolished. However, the district administration denied any such death.
Pappu accused the government officials of taking bribe from the residents to allow the construction on the disputed land. "When the construction takes place in the areas, the law enforcement agencies did not stop at that time. Now, they are razing the houses when people are living there," he said.
Patna SSP Manavjit Singh Dhillon said 34 persons had been arrested for violating Section 144. "On Monday, nine persons were arrested while 26 had been detained on Sunday. An FIR was lodged against 25 people, including Pappu and three of his party workers. Pappu ran away when the police started evacuating the protesters from the area," he told TOI.
"The 40 acre land were illegally occupied by the land mafias and unofficial housing societies formed on the behest of land mafias. They allotted land to people without legal documents," the SSP said.
Meanwhile, local BJP MLA Sanjiv Chaurasia described the action as oppressive and wrong. "Those who demarcated the land and carried out the demolition, will give the land to whom. Under the Digha Settlement Act, there is provision of giving Rs27 lakh as compensation. What happened to that act? The government has not even given compensation for land that they had acquired earlier," he told reporters.
BJP MLC Nawal Kishore Yadav also asked why the district administration and police did not act when the people were constructing their homes on disputed land.