People of the Dalit community in Jharkhand’s Giridih district have charged that their land has been illegally occupied by members of the Muslim community in a letter submitted to the administration. Aggrieved families have been staging protests at the office of the Deputy Commissioner since 12 September in order to reclaim their property.
Furthermore, they are presently dealing with a financial crisis as well. The Bharatiya Janata Party has slammed the incumbent Chief Minister Hemant Soren-led state government over the development. A local party leader told OpIndia that the demonstration is still ongoing.
The incident is reportedly from the Jamua block of the Giridih area where Savitri Bharti, Jeera Devi, Gulabi Devi and other individuals belonging to Dalit families from Nawadih are protesting. They mentioned that the then-Bihar government had legally granted them 11,000 acres of property in the Jamua region in 1986–1987. They planted trees there and regular receipt of land was also collected.
Meanwhile, Abdul, Mashrafe, Khalil, Hamid and Alibakhsh among others seized the land by force. They drove away the Dalits by beating and abusing them. The latter complained to the police many times, however, no action was taken. The victims also highlighted that they had not been relocated there even after over 37 years after which they approached the court.
The land dispute made its way to the Giridih Deputy Commissioner’s Court in 2016 where Khalil Mian led the Muslim side and Mohan Turi represented the Dalits. Both parties produced their documents and put forth arguments during the three-year trial. In 2019, the court of Rahul Kumar Sinha declared the Muslim claims to be invalid and ultimately decided in favour of the Dalits.
The complainants accused that despite winning the case the administration had been unable to return the possession of their land to them even after 4 years. They had now appealed to the Girdih Deputy Commissioner on 12 September of this year and asked for ownership rights of what is legally theirs. They requested that their land should be measured in police presence and illegal occupants should be evicted from there. However, they sat on a protest after their demands were not addressed.
The number of affected families is eleven. Following the 12 September demonstration after which no one paid any heed to them for almost a month, they started to work for their livelihood at the same place itself. They expressed that festivals like Durga Pooja, Chhath and Diwali are looming and they have encountered a critical economic crisis in these conditions.
The bereaved families started preparing soup, making brooms and knitting baskets, etc. at the Deputy Commissioner’s office from 10 October to make ends meet and asserted that they would continue their protest while they strive to support themselves monetarily.
यह अस्वीकार्य है !
— Amar Kumar Bauri (@amarbauri) October 17, 2023
एक बेहद ही संवेदनशील मामला संज्ञान में आया है : गिरिडीह के जमुआ में 11 दलितों की जमीन समुदाय विशेष के लोगों के द्वारा हड़प ली गई है। मिली जानकारी के मुताबिक इस मामले पर जिला प्रशासन ने भी शुरुआती जांच में दलितों का साथ ना देते हुए राज्य सरकार की मनसा को जाहिर… pic.twitter.com/SZOPURO6IO
According to Chandankiyari BJP MLA Arun Kumar, such occurrences are unacceptable. He emphasised that the district authorities should find the offenders and take appropriate action. He proclaimed that there had been an instance of the Mahadalit families being forcefully ejected from their houses by a particular community in Palamu.
OpIndia spoke to local Bharatiya Janata Party leader Kameshwar Paswan in connection with the matter and he disclosed that the police have been chased away multiple times from the area which the Muslim side has unlawfully taken control of by their community members, including women. They have built residences at that place without permission and openly issued death threats to anyone who talks about removing the construction.
