Bokaro (Jharkhand), April 3 BJP leader Champai Soren threatened on Friday to plough the unused land of the Bokaro Steel Plant, which was acquired from displaced families six decades ago, if the state government or the BSP management do not keep their promise to provide employment or return the land to the owners.
A large number of tribal families were displaced to facilitate the establishment of the BSP in the early 1960s. Many of the displaced people claim that they have not received proper compensation, rehabilitation, or employment.
“It is shameful that even six decades after land acquisition in the 1960s, the displaced people here are still forced to struggle for their rights and even lay down their lives,” Soren, a former chief minister, said in a social media post after he unveiled the statue of Prem Prasad Mahato here.
Mahato, an educated youth, had lost his life last year in a lathi charge during a protest by the Displaced Apprentices Union, the BJP MLA from Seraikela said.
“When the Land Acquisition Act has a provision to return land that remained unused for 12 years after acquisition, what is the problem in returning the plots that have been lying vacant for sixty years?” he asked.
Either the state government or the company management must fulfill their promises, or they will leave the land of the displaced, he warned.
“If, in the next one and a half months, the youths who have completed apprenticeships are not given jobs, and the problems of the displaced are not resolved, we will join the land owners and plough the vacant land of the Bokaro Steel Plant,” Soren said.
In the past few years, Soren claimed, the BSP management has trained nearly 1,500 youths of the displaced families under the guise of apprenticeships, but instead of jobs, they were handed certificates. “This is outright fraud,” he said.