Ranchi: People of a tribal village, one of the first in Khunti to put up a pathalgadi plaque and declare self-rule 13 months ago, on Thursday removed the slab and confessed they had been misguided.

Residents of Chitramu, a Munda-dominated village some 20km from Khunti district headquarters and 60km from capital Ranchi, while removing the slab told district officials they had been under the mistaken impression that pathalgadi would empower them and speed up their development.

On Wednesday, Khunti officials came to know villagers would remove the symbolic self-rule slab when Chitramu gram pradhan Ashok Munda gave a petition to Khunti SDO Pranab Kumar Pal in this regard signed by 71 villagers. The gram sabha of the village, where around 500 live, had decided to remove the slab on July 12.

On Thursday, police were deployed on the road approaching the village but did not help villagers in removing the slab. Khunti block circle officer Vijay Kumar, deployed as magistrate for slab removal, said villagers themselves did the job. "The same gram sabha that decided to perform pathalgadi last year now decided to remove its symbol," he said.

Gram pradhan Ashok Munda told scribes that the gram sabha had taken a unanimous decision to remove the stone.

"We were misled about pathalgadi," Munda said. "We were told it would bring development to our locality...we realised we were fooled. But, we want development," he said.

Khunti DC Suraj Kumar welcomed Thursday's move. "Villagers realised their mistake. They were misguided to go against the Constitution of the country. Today (Thursday) I am sending a team of officials to assess their needs. On Saturday, Khunti officials will visit the village. Development programmes will be launched at this village. We believe other villages will also remove pathalgadi (plaques) and join us," he said.