A video appeal by a Border Security Force (BSF) jawan, posted somewhere along the India–Pakistan border, to Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar on Tuesday to save his family and house from the atrocities of musclemen and the apathy of administrative officials has gone viral on social media.
The Nawada district administration was set to demolish his house on Wednesday, May 24, but has granted a few days to the jawan’s family after coming to know about the video so that they could prove that the land on which the house has been constructed belongs to them.
Clad in olive green clothes with a miniature national flag on his chest, the jawan comes up with a salute and introduces himself as one Vikas Kumar Insa of Olipur village under Narhat police station in Nawada district.
“I am right now with the BSF, deployed along the India-Pakistan border. I am protecting the border of the country, but back in my village musclemen Pintu Kumar and Yogendra Kumar are threatening to kill my family. They initiated an encroachment case to get our house demolished,” Vikas says in the video.
“In an effort to save the house, my family submitted applications to Narhat circle officer Rajni Kumari, the sub-divisional magistrate of Rajauli area, and even to Nawada district magistrate Udita Sinha. However, they all ignored the applications,” Vikas further says.
The BSF jawan asserted that his family has the basgeet parcha (paper of residential plot given by the state government to landless people, who also do not have any residential land) and showed it in the video.
He further narrated that his family moved court against the encroachment case filed by the musclemen. However, the administration, instead of waiting for the court’s judgement, arbitrarily passed a demolition order to be executed on May 24.
“We will become homeless. I am a soldier, but have become tired of fighting this. I appeal to chief minister Nitish Kumar to ensure justice for my family. I request him to save us from this peril and not allow such atrocity on a soldier and his family,” Vikas added before signing off.
When contacted, Rajauli sub-divisional officer Aditya Kumar Piyush told The Telegraph that he has seen the video posted by the BSF jawan, and the residential land in question was around 1.5 decimal or roughly 650 square feet.
“The land belongs to the road construction department and we are getting it cleared according to the rules. The encroachment case related to it has been continuing for at least three months now. The concerned circle officer had also heard it. The concerned family has not shown any papers of land ownership to us,” Aditya said.
Asked about the case the jawan’s family has filed in the court, the SDO said that according to the government rules, anti-encroachment proceedings stop only when a court or a competent authority stays it.
“So far the court has not ordered any stay on it. We had fixed the date of May 24 for the removal of the encroachment, but have postponed it for a few days after seeing the BSF jawan’s video so that they could show us the land ownership papers,” Aditya added.
