Shops, business establishments and schools remained closed all over the State during a statewide bandh called by Jharkhand Adivasi Sangharsha Morcha on Friday against the recent amendments made by the State Government in various provisions of the Chhotanagur and Santhal Pargana Tenancy (SPT) Acts in the State.
Barring a few incidents of road blockade and disruptions in rail movement in latehar and lohardaga, bandh more or less remained peaceful with no incidents of violence in any part of the state.
Tribal organisations claimed that the bandh was a complete success as schools and business organizations remained completely closed on Friday.
“It was a complete success as despite pressure created by the administration on the tribals for not coming out to lodge their protest; people made it to the streets who were later arrested by them. In lohardaga itself, more than 2000 people were arrested while 300 people were taken into custody at Namkum in Ranchi,” said Jharkhand Adivasi Sangharsha Morcha spokesperson Premshahi Munda. He alleged that the Raghubar Government intends to hand over the tribal land to the corporate houses by converting agricultural land to non-agricultural land through the amendments made in the CNT and SPT Acts, he added.
“The movement will be carried on till the Government does not roll back the amendments made in the two Acts,” Munda said.
IG (Operations) and Jharkhand Police Spokesperson said that a total of 3516 persons were arrested by the police till 5 pm from all over the state as soon as they took to the streets to lodge their protest against the government’s move. latehar remained on the top with 1290 arrests while only 351 protesters were arrested from Ranchi, he added.
Bhatia also claimed that the bandh remained completely flop and no any untoward incident was reported from any part of the State.
Ranchi police also claimed that no incident of untoward incident was reported from any part of the district as security forces was deployed at every nook and corner of the state capital.
“Preventive arrangements have already been taken to check protesters coming on the streets due to which the normal life did not get disrupted during the bandh. We are immediately taking action if getting any input of disturbances from anywhere,” said SSP Ranchi Kuldeep Dwivedi.
Taking lessons from the bandh called by the Opposition parties on Friday last, barricading at 16 locations all over the state capital was done to check the movement of protesters in the City.
Tribal students were also confined to their hostels preventing them from taking part in the shutdown to protest the amendments to the two state land acts. A large number of security forces were deployed outside the tribal students’ hostels since midnight on Thursday in Ranchi, Dumka as well as other parts of the state.
Meanwhile, transportation to and from the state capital remained crippled as very less number of long distance buses plied on the national and state highways. Private schools across the state also remained shut.
Ranchi-lohardaga Passenger train was disrupted at Tangarbasli Station on Ranchi-lohardaga section by the protesters which got delayed by half an hour while in Ranchi very less vehicles could be spotted on the roads. The protesters also disrupted the rail traffic for over three hours by blocking railway track in latehar.
In Pakur also, Adivasi Sangharsha Morcha blocked Pakuria-Dumka main road near Bagjobra village due to which traffic remained disturbed for several hours. Coming into action as many as 24 protesters were arrested from the spot to maintain law and order.
In Ghatshila, protesters in Dumaria block came out on the streets with traditional weapons and were later taken into custody by the police whereas in Gumla women protesters in large numbers shouted slogans against the amendments made in the CNT and SPT Acts.
Meanwhile, a seven-member delegation of AJSU party met Governor Droupadi Murmu requesting her to intervene. The delegation also briefed her about the Constitutional anomalies coming out of the amendments made in the two tribal laws. The Governor was also explained in detail about the effects of amendments on Adivasi-Moolwasi population of the State.