Jamshedpur: A crowd comprising around 200 shop owners of Kharangajhar and Ghorabandha areas today put up a demonstration before the office of the deputy commissioner against administrative orders to dismantle illegally built shops.
Leading the agitators who held bowls in their hands to seek alms as a token protest, president of Kharangajhar Bajar Vikas Samiti and deputy Mukhiya of the area Ravishankar Pandey said the forest department was bent on removing 200 shops from Kharangajhar.
He alleged that the department had however turned a blind eye to the activities of land sharks operating in the adjoining Kharangajhar locality.
�Hundreds of acres of forest land is under the clutches of land mafia members. Many people have lined their pockets by illegally occupying government land and selling the same. But poor shop owners are being displaced in the name of removing encroachment from forest land. This is unjustified.
The government should first prepare plan to rehabilitate us before going ahead with the plan to dismantle our shops,� said Pandey.
Pandey further informed that the shop owners going to be affected by the administration�s drive would soon meet CM Raghubar Das and demand his intervention in the matter. He said if the situation did not improve, the shop owners will be compelled to resort to self immolation.
The agitating shop owners said their third generation was doing business in the said localities. They said if their shops are removed, their families will be starved to death due to poverty.
