Pathalgadi supporters from Khunti district are working hand in glove with rebel outfits in neighbouring West Singbhum’s Bandhgaon block and threatening villagers to either surrender their government identity cards or face consequences, officials from West Singbhum district said on Wednesday.
The matter came to light after villagers complained that Pathalgadi supporters had used muscle power to force some residents of villages in the interiors of Bandhgaon block to surrender their ration cards, Aadhaar cards and even job cards to the administration. The West Singbhum administration has received nearly 100 government identity cards from more than three villages in the block in the past one month, officials said.
“We did proper profiling of all the villages in the block and came to the conclusion that Pathalgadi supporters from Khunti were working with Left Wing Extremist (LWE) groups in our Bandhgaon block to forcibly make villagers surrender their government identity cards,” said West Singhbhum Deputy Commissioner Arava Rajkamal.
The Pathalgadi movement, which has its epicenter in Khunti, advocates the idea of having liberated lands in the interiors where the administration’s interventions are prohibited. In 2017, villagers in parts of Khunti district held Pathalgadi –a practice of demarcating the borders of a village and declaring it as liberated land through writings on stone plaques – and allegedly prohibited entry of the administration in their villages. Some villagers had also reportedly held a few cops hostage during the process. The government had swung into action and launched a massive drive against the movement which resulted in arrest of several Gram Pradhans and Pathalgadi supporters.
Cut to 2019, the Pathalgadi supporters are running a campaign to make villagers reject facilities under various welfare schemes of the government, said officials from West Singbhum, adding that the surrender of identity cards was a part of the campaign.
The West Singhbhum administration has identified at least six people involved in advocating the idea of Pathalgadi through muscle power in the villages and will soon launch a manhunt to nab them. “All these identified Pathalgadi supporters are from Khunti district, which shares its border with Bandhgaon block of West Singhbhum,” said Rajkamal.
He, however, added that the common villagers were not in support of the Pathalgadi movement. In a meeting held with the chiefs of all villages in Bandhgaon block on Monday, it was unanimously decided that there were no supporters of the movement in the block and only a few Pathalgadi supporters from Khunti were persuading villagers to wage war against the Government. West Singhbhum Superintendent of Police, Chandan Kumar Jha said that all such cases were reported from areas under the jurisdiction of Bandhgaon Police Station. “We have identified around five to six persons involved in this. They will be arrested soon,” he said.
Meanwhile, Khunti police have denied any such incident reported under their jurisdiction in the recent past. Khunti Superintendent of Police, Shri Alok said that the Khunti police was yet to get any information regarding this trend in their district. Bandhgaon block of West Singhbhum is hardly 30 Kilometers from Khunti.
As per figures with the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), at least 18 of 24 districts in Jharkhand are LWE-affected. And Pathalgadi supporters’ association with LWE groups has rung the alarm bell for the Government here. The recent rise in the number of attacks by the outlawed rebel outfits in the past has particularly raised concerns over the security of officials visiting the interiors to extract information regarding the Pathalgadi movement, sources said. “Most of the affected villages are in the interiors. While we are providing security in the areas, we also have to keep in mind that the rebel outfits have been extremely active in the recent past and they may pose trouble for our security personnel,” said a senior police official from West Singhbhum. He, however, refused to be named.