Bokaro Co-operative Colony on Monday. (Pankaj Singh)

Bokaro, July 18: Continuing to implement the anti-encroachment directive of Jharkhand High Court, Bokaro Steel Limited has handed a second notice in three months to 462 people who were given land on lease to construct homes at a posh colony of Bokaro Steel City for indulging in commercial activities.

The sword of Damocles is hanging over the house owners — retired or senior employees, including doctors with Bokaro General Hospital — at Bokaro Co-operative Colony in the heart of the city. The steel plant has served a notice through assistant general manager K.S. Rao, asking residents to refrain from using company quarters and premises commercially.

Colony residents have been told that opening shops, keeping tenants or operating any establishment which fetches revenue is illegal. The steel giant has also cited reference to an agreement dated December 4, 1970, in which it stated that the plot was given to Bokaro steel employees for residential purposes only.

Commercial establishments — nursing homes, shops and others — have come up in the colony, which the company termed “illegal and unethical”. Since April 13, 2011, all commercial activities had been stopped for more than five weeks after Bokaro steel had served closure notices. Last month, they resumed, after residents pleaded before Bokaro steel authorities to consider their cases on “humanitarian grounds”.

This time too, residents are planning to tread on the same path. Talking to the media, co-operative colony secretary V.P Singh said: “We will humbly request Bokaro steel management to allow us to continue commercial activities.”

The co-operative colony’s office bearers said they had no other means of livelihood. “This is the only way we can earn our bread and butter. We are ready to pay more taxes,” said one.

A meeting of the co-operative colony’s executive body has decided that a delegation of this colony will meet the managing director of Bokaro steel plant S.S. Mohanty.

“We have decided to plead our case. We want sympathetic consideration. There are dozens of doctors who give free treatment to needy even at night. Several NGOs are involved in the uplift of the poor. We will request the management to consider our case,” an office bearer said.

Bokaro steel has already burnt its fingers with the who’s who of the city — politicians, bureaucrats, police officers, NGO representatives, et al — arbitrarily holding on to many of its quarters or plots.