Villagers petition Hemant Soren in Ranchi on Friday. Picture by Hardeep Singh

Around 100 villagers from Nagri on Friday came calling to the state capital to meet JMM chief Shibu Soren and deputy chief minister Hemant Soren and press for return of 214 acres of agricultural land that the government has taken away for setting up three premier national cradles.

Although they failed to meet Guruji, they left only after wresting positive assurances from his son.

The villagers arrived at Soren’s Morabadi residence around 9.30am but was informed about half an hour later that the JMM chief was out of station. On not finding Guruji, they walked down to Hemant’s residence in front of Suchana Bhavan, about one-and-a-half kilometre from Morabadi.

A 10-member delegation met the deputy chief minister and urged him to take quick action to resolve the Nagri stalemate. Hemant apparently responded positively and also came out to speak to the others waiting outside.

“Don’t worry. I am with you. If the JMM chief has given you positive assurance, I will do my effort. As we are running a coalition government in the state, it is not possible to make any promise right now. But being a son of the soil, I understand your sentiment and will act accordingly. Have confidence in me,” he said.

A resident of Nagri and member of the delegation, Nandi Kacchap, said: “The visit to Hemant Soren’s house proved to be fruitful. It gave a ray of hope to Nagri residents who are struggling to get back their agricultural land that the government had acquired for constructing the campuses of National University for Study and Research in Law, IIM and IIIT.”

Security was beefed up around Hemant’s residence in anticipation of trouble. “But everything remained peaceful. There was no trouble at all,” said superintendent of police (city), Vipul Shukla.