The Pagar village of Keredari block of Hazaribagh district has become a pilgrim site for the politicians of the State. Everyone is trying to encash the incident and for it now a race has begun between the political parties to prove itself as the biggest sympathisers of the villagers who are going to be displaced.
In this race on Monday morning, the present MlA of Barkagaon Yogendra Sao of Congress entered into the scene in a dramatic way. In the morning when the denizens of Barkagaon and Keredari woke up they saw posters on street lamp posts, buildings, trees etc. having a message to the officers of all the coal companies who had got coal block here in this region. Through these posters MlA Yogendra Sao has warned the officers of the companies to not enter into the villages until their companies get ready to give a rate of Rs. 40 lakhs per acre to the land owners. On these posters it is written that this warning has been given jointly by the MlA and Gram Sabha.
When the mediapersons enquired about it Sao confirmed that he had put the posters and asked what is wrong in it. He said that if the officers of the company want to enter into the villages they will have to pay a rate of Rs. 40 lakhs first. He also blamed NTPC and said that he will demand CBI enquiry against the working pattern of company here. On Sunday, Hazaribagh MlA Saurav Narayan Singh was in Pagar and he assured the villagers that during next assembly session he will bring a bill in the house to ensure service to atleast one person of those families who will lose land due to availability of coal in this area. He also said that in Delhi and Gurgaon companies are giving a rate of more than 1 crore to the land owners and assured them that no one can take their land forcibly.
Reacting to it Baleshwar Kumar of JVM said that it was Yogendra Sao who was proudly distributing cheques of Rs. 15 lakh rate among the displaced last month in a function organized by NTPC and at that time he was claiming that the company has increased the rate after his tiresome efforts and now through posters once again he has started playing politics. Baleshwar blamed that Sao has got two boleros from NTPC for his personal use and NTPC expenses Rs. 30-35 thousand per month on these boleros for fuel and maintenance. He said that everyone knows the reality and this type of gimmicks are not going to work this time.
The Congressmen blamed that it was Babulal Marandi, Yashwant Sinha and Arjun Munda who brought NTPC here and now when the villagers are agitating they are shedding false tears. JVM leaders are giving ration and other items to the grieved family for Bramhabhoj while BJP’s loknath Mahto is trying to fool the displaced by sitting on dharna with them but this time it will not work.