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| Deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi at the ceremony to mark the inauguration of the JVL Oils and Foods factory at Dehri-on-Sone in Rohtas on June 28, 2009. Picture by Sanjay Choudhary |
Patna, June 21: A private firm manufacturing edible oil at Dehri-on-Sone in Rohtas district has allegedly blocked the road used by residents of about half-a-dozen villages, raising the spectre of yet another Forbesganj-like eruption.
The inhabitants of the affected villages have alleged that the company, J.V.L Oils and Foods, has encroached upon about 56 decimals of land which had been used as a public road for well over three decades.
Senior officials of the company could not be contacted even after repeated attempts. “Talk to the owner of the company, who lives in Varanasi,” said a staff member on duty at the company’s office at Pahleja near Dehri-on-Sone.
The Rohtas residents have launched an agitation to get the road freed from encroachment, much like the villagers of Bhajanpur in Forbesganj in Araria district. The protest there snowballed on June 3, leading to police firing in which at least four persons, including a minor, were killed.
The Dehri villagers, most of who belong to Pahleja, Ajuba Bigha, Narayan Bigha and Ganaura hamlets, say their protests and appeals had met with little or no response from police and senior administration officers. “We organised dharnas and took out processions to draw the attention of the authorities concerned but in vain,” said Ashok Baitha, a social worker. A petition containing signatures of about three dozen residents was also submitted to the district magistrate.
Even the inquiry report of the circle amin (who is responsible for measurement of the land) mentions that J.V.L. Oils and Foods had “illegally” encroached on 56 decimal of land being used as a sarva sadharan rasta, or public road, of which the gram panchayat is the custodian. Even the government is not entitled to lease out such plots.
The circle officer of Dehri has already issued three notices to the company to vacate the encroached land. The latest notice was issued on March 10, 2011, directing the company to vacate the encroached land within a week. The circle officer had fixed the deadline for March 24. Copies of the notices were sent to the district magistrate, sub-divisional officer and station house officer of Dehri police station. However, even after almost three months, no action has been taken to get the land vacated from encroachment.
Rohtas district magistrate Anupam Kumar had ordered a probe on September 29, 2009, and entrusted the task to the Dehri sub-divisional officer.
The DM’s letter said: “It is a serious matter which needs thorough investigation. Under what circumstances has government land been illegally encroached upon by the company showing it to be raiyati.”
Documents in the possession of The Telegraph show that the company had purchased about 4.5 acres of plot each from Jagu Sah and Gupat Sah respectively for setting up the factory.
The story of land encroachment does not end here. The company has been accused of forcibly grabbing about 1.35 acres of plot allegedly belonging to one Sunil Kumar Singh, a resident of Pahleja village. “When I tried to intervene and stop construction work, the officials of the company not only rebuked me but threatened me with dire consequences,” Singh said. “The officials told me that they enjoyed the blessings of some senior ruling party leaders.”
Singh later lodged a complaint petition in the Sasaram court, which issued a warrant of arrest against senior officials of the company — H.C. Agarwal (vice-president) and A. Jhunjhunwala (president). Warrants were also issued against two others — D. Mitra and S. Som — from the court of first class judicial magistrate Jitendra Kumar on June 2, 2011.
The company has, however, flaunted the name of deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi in their written statement submitted in the court of Sasaram sub-judge IV on September 3, 2009. The statement reads: “After the purchase as well as application for permanent lease on verbal order of the state of Bihar, the factory was brought into existence and in a position to run and work after Sushil Kumar Modi, the finance minister of Bihar, got inaugurated the same on June 28, 2009. Only then the company began to run and is still running.”
Singh said that when he sought details about Modi’s order under the Right to Information Act, he was told by the revenue and land reforms department that said no such order had ever been passed in connection with the land.