Shopkeepers stage sit-in protest at Kharangajhar demanding arrest of DFO

Jamshedpur, August 30: Villagers, public representatives and shopkeepers of Kharangajhar stage massive sit-in protest against the sabotage to Jyotirling Shiv mandir by forest department officers.

Demanding arrest of DFO local shopkeepers closed down their shops and joined in the protesting villager at Kharangajhar chowk on Tuesday. Seeing the protest getting intensified, SDO Suraj Kumar seeing the seriousness of the matter arrived at the spot at around 12.30 pm and invited the protesters for a meeting at Telco Police Station.

Later a delegation of the protestors led by villager head Ravishankar pandey, Zila Parishad member Sunita Shah, chief of Jamshedpur block Ravindra Nath Singh, Afzal Akhtar and Sanjay Mani Tiwary arrived at the telco Police Station.

Addressing the meet, SDO Suraj Kumar informed the public representatives about the obligations of forest department officials and according to the information received from the forest officials they have not vandalized the mandir but only broke the part of the temple which was being expanded and seized some of the materials.

On the other hand representing the villagers, Ravishankar Pandey said, ‘Forest department officials not only vandalized a part of the temple which was expanded but also damaged temple’s donation box, the main entrance and the terrace of shivling. These incidents lead to breach of peace which is totally illegal’.

Shopkeepers informed that forest department officials have put up notice at around 200 shops to vacate it during Monday night.

Earlier also the officials had tried to give them notice but they refused to accept it.

Ravishankar Pandey, President of Kharangajhar market said, the action taken by DFO is mala fide and this is the reason why liquor and scrap business are on the rise in the area.