New Delhi, Jan. 31: Rights activist Medha Patkar has informed the National Commission for Minorities (NCM) that Bhajanpur, near Forbesganj in Araria district, where four persons died in police firing last June, is tense as a controversial wall of a factory is being rebuilt.

Patkar also confirmed the NCM’s charge that the Bihar government had not pushed for any development to mitigate the situation in the area.

Four people, including an infant, were killed on June 3, 2011, when police fired on residents protesting against the blockade of the main approach road of the village by a starch plant of Auro Sundaram International — a firm owned by the son of a BJP MLC.

In an email, Patkar, currently on a Lokshakti Abhiyan (people’s power campaign) through Bihar and Jharkhand, has written: “There is widespread fear in the area still. In fact, the day we went there, administration was trying to facilitate a settlement where the only road to the village, at the centre of the controversy, will be handed to the starch factory. The ‘progressive’ state has relieved its responsibilities by appointing one-person committee which till date has not bothered to visit the area and whose term has already been extended four times.”

Prior to Patkar’s alert, the NCM was in a war of words with the Bihar government. In a letter to Union minority affairs minister Salman Khurshid, the state’s minority welfare minister Shahid Ali Khan wrote that any decision on compensation for adult victims of the police action would only be given after the single-member judicial commission of Justice Madhavendra Saran submits its report.

Taking a jibe at the NCM, Khan added: “I would like to bring to your notice that minorities in Bihar, especially the Muslims, are also deeply distressed by the incident that took place in Gopalgarh, Rajasthan… Please convey our concern over this appalling incident to Wajahat Habibullah, chairman, National Commission for Minorities.”

Habibullah replied through Khurshid, saying: “The Government of Bihar is using the institution of the judicial commission as an excuse to cover complete inaction on any of the recommendations made by this commission.”