Ranchi, Aug 28 The political confrontation over land acquisition for the proposed RIMS-2 medical college in Ranchi’s Nagdi area escalated on Thursday after former Jharkhand Chief Minister Champai Soren announced a massive public mobilisation against the project.
Addressing reporters outside the Assembly, Soren said he would organise an "Adivasi Maha Darbar" between October 5 and 11 near the land earmarked for RIMS-2.
He claimed that 1.5 to 2 lakh people from across the state would participate in the programme to oppose what he termed the "forcible acquisition" of tribal and raiyat farmland.
"The fight for the rights of tribal farmers will not stop under any circumstances. We never imagined that this government would treat poor farmers, who depend on agriculture for survival, in this way," the BJP leader said.
The former JMM leader clarified that his protest was not against the construction of a hospital but against the manner of land acquisition.
"Despite the availability of barren land and land bank plots, fertile land belonging to tribals is being targeted. Orders have been issued to stop farmers from cultivating their land without completing any legal acquisition process," he alleged.
Responding to remarks from ministers that outsiders were being brought into the protests, Soren retorted: "The government is itself settling people from Bangladesh, and yet it accuses us of bringing outsiders. When those whose land and livelihood are being snatched come to the streets, it is labelled as an external mobilisation."
He further reminded that the statehood struggle for Jharkhand was rooted in the protection of tribal rights and land. "The same farmers in whose name Jharkhand was created are today being forced to fight to save their land,” he said.
The dispute over RIMS-2 has triggered continued protests in Nagdi, with farmers demanding that the government reconsider its choice of site and alleging repression by the administration.
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