Dhanbad, Oct. 30: Representatives from 28 villages of Baghmara staged a demonstration at Randhir Verma square here today protesting against the inclusion of the villages in the Municipal Corporation of Dhanbad.

The demonstrators, under the banner of the Vinod Vichar Manch, said the decision of the government to include the villages in the corporation would unnecessarily be a burden on the poor villagers, most of who are farmers and daily wagers.

The association’s vice-president, Naresh Mahto, sarcastically said the “bribe rate” would simply go up after our villages are included in the corporation, as applications would have to be moved through more tables.

“Moreover, we would lose a number of useful government schemes for people below poverty level, like old-age pension, Indira Awaas Yojana and others. Besides, one would also pay heavy taxes for electricity and water, which we have never done before. For electricity, we pay Rs 70 a month which would be twice as much under a corporation and for a single connection of water line it would costs one person Rs 7,000 at a time,” said one of the villagers from Nagrhi who has applied for a water connection recently.

The reasons similarly prompted villagers of 44 more villages in the Govindpur block to start a “do-or-die movement” against the authorities demanding the exclusion of the villages from the municipal corporation.

Jaleshwar Mahto, Mathura Prasad Mahto, Rajkishore Mahto and Aparna Sengupta, legislators from Baghmara, Tundi, Sindri and Nirsa, respectively, have taken up the matter at various public meetings and demonstrations since the notification for municipal corporation was made on February 1.

“We would now file a PIL in the high court because according to the Constitution there has to be a categorisation of rural and urban areas first before villages are included in a municipal corporation which was not done,” Rajkishore Mahto said.