Ranchi, Oct. 16: Alarmed over the Jharkhand government going on an MoU-signing spree with industrial houses, tribals in the state have started mobilising themselves apprehending that the new projects would trigger large-scale displacements and mass exodus.

The apprehensions have ultimately led them to invoke their deity ?Sing Bonga? ? their lord of Nature. The tribals want to seek refuge in ?Sing Bonga? to save their land from being taken over by business houses that have recently signed a number of MoUs with the Jharkhand government.

On October 17, tribals drawn from different parts of the state capital and also its adjoining districts would assemble at Pithoria?s Jamuani village to participate in the rituals to be performed by a group of ?pahans? (tribal priests). The rituals would begin with the symbolic sacrifice of a ?paatha? (the male goat) by the priests.

Tribal bodies have earmarked Jamuani as the centre to formally launch their agitation against displacement in the name of development projects.

Incidentally, in Jamuani, the then deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishna Advani had laid the foundation of Ranchi University?s new campus on November 15, 2002.

The tribals have been opposing the construction of the new campus and have refused to make their land available for the project.

If the recent MoUs signed by the business houses are anything to go by, Mittals alone require some 12,000 hectares for their venture while the Tatas need around 8,000 hectares.

The state government, too, has seriously begun thinking on those lines now especially in the wake of the brewing resentment among residents of West Singbhum and Seraikela- Kharsawan districts where the steel plants are likely to come up.

Leader of the Opposition Sudhir Mahato said the state government went on signing MoUs without working out rehabilitation policies for those who would be displaced after the state acquired their land for the projects.

He told The Telegraph: ?The government has been on an MoU-signing spree without thinking how it will arrange for land for the various projects. It should be better for the government to find out government land for such ventures, as the people are not going to commit the mistake of giving away their land for the cause of development.?

During the mass show in Pithoria on October 17, the tribals will make a resolve that they ?will not give their land? for any of the proposed projects.

Ratan Tirkey of the Jharkhand Janadhikar Party (JJP) said: ?Tribals are scared of the word called development. It is in the name of development that we have been stripped off our land, culture, identity and have been reduced to a minority in our own land.?

The JJP contends that the government has been signing MoUs without realising that there are two major laws into force in the state, which restrict the sale, purchase and even transfer of tribal land to non-tribals.

Moreover, as per the Samata Judgment of the Supreme Court, tribal land cannot be acquired even in the name of development.

The Samata Judgment, according to Mandar MLA Bandhu Tirkey, envisages the government to pay 20 per cent of the royalty amount to the person whose land is used in development projects.

?But nowhere do we hear that the government is paying any royalty to those who have lost their land in past for any major development projects,? he said.