Over 200 Tana Bhagats, members of a sect that believes in Gandhian principles, continued their indefinite agitation on second consecutive day by holding demonstration on railway track in Chandwa locality of Latehar district for their various demands.
The stir affected movement of several goods trains as well as New Delhi-Ranchi Rajdhani Express, which remained stranded at Daltonganj railway station since morning on Thursday.
Tana Bhagat resorted to agitation from Wednesday evening by blocking railway track. They have been demanding a complete ban on coal mining in Jharkhand saying wealth of Jharkhand is being quickly belted-out of Jharkhand. They are also demanding land lease besides pension for them.
They are carrying banners and posters of their demands besides they placed national flag and portrait of Bharat Mata.
However, their land related demand is very old and justified. During British period they had stopped paying land tax to government on call of Mahatma Gandhi after which their land was confiscated.
They demanded return of their confiscated land besides exemption from land tax because they insist that Mahatma Gandhi had asked them not to pay land rent. Tana Bhagats who are mainly Oraon tribal of Jharkhand are the followers of philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi and they lead an austere life. However, successive governments especially the previous government headed Raghubar Das, lands were leased out to them.Tana Bhagats ignored district administration warning them that under a pandemic act holding demonstrations and mass gathering are illegal.
Latehar SDM Sagar Kumar, SDPO Virendra Ram and others reached demonstration site and assured to look into their demands but they refused to withdraw agitation.
Meanwhile, a 22 coach New Delhi--Ranchi Rajdhani Special train was kept ‘controlled’ at the Daltonganj railway station since 6.40 AM on Thursday due to blockade.750 passengers were on board this train, said station superintendent of Daltonganj railway station Anil Kumar Tiwari. The stranding of Rajdhani special train at Daltonganj railway station made chief secretary Sukhdev Singh and DGP M V Rao to get in touch here with DC Shashi Ranjan and Ajay Linda respectively as two top brasses asked DC and SP here to bail out stranded passengers and reach them their destination Ranchi by buses or so said sources. Linda said first lot of stranded passengers were sent by a fleet of 10 buses for Ranchi while a dozen more buses are to ferry them to Ranchi.