Bhuli vows to fight evictions - Mannan Mallik, deputy mayor Niraj Singh to lead protesters

The Bhuli township administration office of BCCL. Picture by Gautam Dey

Dhanbad, April 14: Bharat Coking Coal Limited (BCCL) officials may be gearing up to clear encroachments from its colonies, but residents of Bhuli have chalked out a detailed plan to thwart the administration’s move.

Four groups, led among others by ward councillors and people’s representatives like MLA Mannan Mallik and deputy mayor Niraj Singh, have been constituted under the banner of Bhuli Bacho Sangharsh Samiti to “tackle” the BCCL’s initiatives.

The groups will adopt different strategies — take legal recourse, mobilise mass support, launch hungerstrikes and agitate — to thwart the anti-encroachment drive.

As part of its mass mobilisation plans, members of samiti made announcements in different blocks of the colony today. The protests began yesterday after the BCCL administration posted notices bearing the names of 638 illegal occupants of its quarters at different places in the township.

BCCL has served notices to 1,500 encroachers asking them to vacate their quarters within 48 hours.

This apart, police complaints have also been lodged by the company against 8,400 people for carrying out illegal constructions on land owned by it.

“We have instructed the BCCL management and Bhuli administration to first issue notices in newspapers against illegal occupants of its quarters and also issue eviction notices in the colonies failing which they would be forcefully evicted,” said additional district magistrate (law and order) Balmiki Prasad Singh.

“At first illegal occupants of existing quarters would be evicted following which action would be taken against illegal constructions,” said B.P. Singh, adding that an action taken report will be submitted in the high court on April 19.

Notably, BCCL cited lack of cooperation from the district administration for not removing encraochments so far.

Elaborating on the agitation plan, councillor of Ward No 14 in Bhuli, Ranjit Prasad Singh alias Billu said the members of the Bhuli Bachao Sangharsh Samiti would sit on a fast unto death with MLA Mannan Mallik from April 18.