Residents of Kirkend and surrounding areas in Dhanbad are on boil over eviction notice by Bharat Coking Coal Limited (BCCL).
The notice came through newspaper advertisement, in which a population of around 35,000 has been asked to vacate Kirkend Bazaar besides all colonies along the western side of the national highway no 32 with Jamshedpur via Chas - Bokaro.
The BCCL management claims that the areas that also include Rajput Basti are under threat of subsidence and residing here may be risking lives. Altogether 41 subsidence incidents have occurred in the Gopalichak project area. Out of these 20 took place only at Rajput Basti.
The notice issues by the project officer(PO) of Gopalochak project of the company that comes under Putki - Balihari area has sighted notice of the Director General of mines safety(DGMS) that according to the PO has too declared the area as subsidence prone zone and living in those areas may be rising lives.
Project officer GK Mahta said, “We have to make people aware of the risks thus an appeal was published.”
However, the Wholesale Cloth Merchants Association (WCMA)of Kirkend sees this notice as a conspiracy to terrorise people who are living here for generations.
Secretary of the WCMA Ghanshyam Narnoli in a press release has expressed deep concern over the notice and said that the conspiracy to uproot a large population would not be successful.
The association has decided to oppose the move of the BCCL with help of all those likely to be affected.
Ghanshyam said, “If at all BCCL is willing to get land for its coal projects, first relocate and rehabilitate all those residing here along with adequate compensation than only initiate step eviction."
A local resident SKGiri said , in last 12 to 13 years since Jharia Action Plan (JAP)started the administration has succeeded in rehabilitation of just 3000 odd families out of around a lakh who have been registered as illegal residents from Jharia locality through the residents face major threat from underground fire
raising since over a hundred years.
This eviction notice to people of Kirkend and surrounding areas is an attempt to intimidate people by the company. T
he company must come out with a comprehensive compensation and rehabilitation plan first, added Giri.