On Sunday. December 18, a clash broke out between local villagers and the railway officials in Jharkhand’s Bandidih railway station, Chas Muffasil, Bokaro district. According to the Hindi daily Jagran, the scuffle broke out after the railway officials forcefully uprooted a Shivling installed near the railway tracks.
The villagers protested after the Railway Protection Force (RPF) jawans uprooted the Shivling while the railway officials laid the railway track and doubled it. The angry villagers first chased away the labourers and then blocked the road at the Bandhdih turn.
The villagers claimed that this Shivling was installed at this location roughly 200 years prior to the construction of the TT line. The villagers objected, asserting that the officials had offended the Hindus by vandalising the centuries-old Shivling that their ancestors and forebears had long worshipped.
According to reports, the villagers demanded that a temple be constructed and the Shivling be re-installed amid prayers and chants, but the railway authorities allegedly disregarded their demands and forcibly uprooted the Shivling before taking it away.
The locals added that Dhanbad MP PN Singh had also given the Divisional Railway Manager information in this regard but to no avail. They lamented the fact that the railway management had not even paid anyone compensation for the land.
This enraged the villagers who then drove away the railway workers who were doubling the railway track and blocked the road at the Banddih junction. On learning of the incident, six station in-charges, including those from Siyaljori, Bangaria and Chas Muffasil, arrived at the site and tried to pacify the villagers. The enraged villagers didn’t stop protesting and unblocked the Banddih intersection until the Shivling was reinstalled in its original location.
