Maheshmunda (Kahalgaon), Jan. 29: A group of residents today went on the rampage on the Kahalgaon Super Thermal Power Project premises and uprooted train tracks after a college student died in an accident in the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) township area last evening.
The protesters said Ibrar Ahmad, 21, a resident of Maheshmunda village, had gone to the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) township area around 8pm yesterday to withdraw money from an ATM kiosk when an SUV reportedly rammed into the motorcycle that he was riding. Ibrar, a second-year student of Shankar Shah Vikramshila College, died on the spot. Tabraj, a Class VIII student of Ganguly Pathshala, Kahalgaon, who was on the pillion, was critically injured and admitted to Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College and Hospital, Bhagalpur.
NTPC officials claimed that the accident occurred as Ibrar was riding the motorcycle under the influence of alcohol. “He lost control over the two-wheeler and hit a tree,” an NTPC official said.
This morning, over 150 villagers from Maheshmunda raided the Kahalgaon power plant, around 260km from the state capital, and damaged its gate number-1 and the offices from where gate passes are issued to visitors. The rampage continued for over two hours. They also uprooted tracks of Eastern Railway through which imported coal reaches the power plant.
An FIR filed with the NTPC police station today alleged that Ibrar was murdered. The complainant, Mohammed Wasi Alam, claimed he saw a white SUV ramming into Ibrar’s motorcycle.
“A manager of the plant, O.P. Gupta, was driving the SUV. I could not jot down the number of the vehicle as it sped away immediately after hitting the two-wheeler bearing the registration number BR10M0398,” Alam said in the FIR.
He alleged that Ibrar recently had an altercation with Gupta while buying vegetables at a market.
Alam also accused the doctors on duty at the NTPC hospital of not taking care of Tabraj and insisting the villagers to shift him to some other hospital.
The protesters sought compensation of Rs 5 lakh and a job to a relative of the deceased. They also did not allow police to take away Ibrar’s body for autopsy.
“We will continue to demonstrate unless NTPC agrees to our demands,” said Mohammed Nasim, one of the demonstrators. “We will also snap the water supply line to the power plant if our demands are not met with,” another protester said.
The NTPC management has, however, offered Rs 51,000 as compensation and a temporary job to the next of Ibrar’s kin. “We have told the protesters about our offer during a meeting conducted to resolve the row,” said A.K. Jha, the deputy general manager (human resource) of NTPC.
Kahalgaon sub-divisional officer (SDO) Sanjoy Kumar said: “We have told the NTPC management that if they could spend lakhs on cultural functions, they should also take care of the victim’s family.”
He added that the situation in the village was tense but under control. The SDO, however, refused to say anything on why the police did not take any action when the protesters damaged the train tracks.
Last year in October, five units at the plant had to be shut down as hundreds of residents, who had lost their land for the Kahalgaon power project, blocked the merry-go-round (MGR) railway track.
Over 200 residents of the rehabilitated Colony No. 1 and No. 2 had launched the indefinite blockade of the MGR (Lalmatiya — NTPC Kahalgaon) near Kushapur rail overbridge seeking permanent jobs in the NTPC’s Kahalgaon unit, which has a production capacity of 2,340MW. Like Colony No. 1 and No. 2, Maheshmunda is also a rehabilitated village.
