Villagers to move apex court to save farmland.

The Times of India: Ranchi: Sunday,May27,2012.

Jodha Oraon has replaced his late mother's place on the protest ground in Chaura Nagri after she (Mundri Orain) succumbed to severe heat wave while sitting under the sun for several weeks in protest. The Oraon family is one among those hundreds of families who once supported the Jharkhand separate state movement and are now looking to the government with bated breath to save their agricultural land from being snatched away.

The land has been acquired by the state government for construction of central education institutions including central law university. The move has been protested by the villagers who are not ready to part with their agricultural land. The land on which the villagers have been sitting on dharna is being brought under a boundary wall.

It was after death of Mundri Devi that the agitation has started gaining momentum. The first human sacrifice in form of the tribal woman succumbing to heat wave has resulted in people from different walks of life coming together.

Social activist Dayamani Barla said of the 153 families selected to be compensated by the government, 128 families had not accepted the money. "After filing repeated RTI applications, I was told that Rs1.33 lakh has been deposited in the district treasury in name of these 128 families who refused to take their compensation and part away with their land," she said.

Jharkhand high court advocate Rajiv Kumar who has been taking up the cause of these hapless villagers moved to Delhi on Saturday to approach the apex court against the high court order that held land acquisition by state government as legal and proper.

Meanwhile, social activists have started garnering support to mobilize the intelligentsia and also approach the voters in Hatia byelection to understand the political realities in state. Jharkhand Small-scale Industries Association (JSIA) member R P Shahi said the tribal villagers were in dire need of support from other sections of the society because their number was less. "There could be 300 families but in government papers 153 families are residing there. Whatever the real number may be they cannot take on the government," he said.