The village head of Tantri south Panchyat Tina Singh was arrested and sent behind the bar on the charge of creating breaches in Tenu-Canal on 30 March and thrashing a BSl officer with her sandal. Police arrested the village head from her house in the wee hours.
Demand jobs and necessary facilities agitated displaced people including women and children created the breaches in the canal near Tupkadih about 7 kms from the district headquarter of Bokaro on 30 March.
Displaced created four breaches in the Tenu-Canal which was disrupted water supply in Bokaro Steel Plant (BSl) and Bokaro Steel township area. Taking stiff action police arrested more than 300 agitated displaced people and sent in a camp jail but later they were released.
Day after the breaches created in the canal a case was filed against the displaced at local police station and today Singh was arrested and sent to jail, said police.
Tenu-Canal is the lifeline of Bokaro; such types of unruly activities had been indulged earlier by displaced and some unsocial groups which disrupted water supply in plant as well as in the township and surrounding areas, sources said.
At the time of acquiring our lands to set up plant company had promised us to provide jobs to the identified displaced people; now failed from their promise”, alleged Setu a displaced youth of the village.
Demanding jobs we displaced launched several agitations earlier like ‘Jal Satyagrah’, ‘Brikshawas Satyagraha’ and ‘Agani Satyagraha’ but all goes in-vain, said Navin a displaced youth. Protesting that day we had created breaches in the canal in a bid to draw the management’s attention towards us, he said.
Notably, several displaced groups are demanding jobs from BSl and their protest got a new momentum after 1997 as after appointments on Gread – 4 was closed by the management.