Ranchi: RJD leader Lalu Prasad today said the Jharkhand government was displacing people in the garb of anti-encroachment drive.
The state government has been evicting the poor on the pretext of encroachment, the former Bihar chief minister told reporters here.
He was referring to last year’s anti-encroachment drive in Ranchi, Dhanbad and other places of Jharkhand and the recent July 4 clash between the police and villagers of Nagri in protest against land acquisition for construction of educational institutions in the area.
Praising senior BJP leader Yashwant Sinha for opposing the encroachment drive in Ranchi last year, Prasad alleged that the Munda government had made anti-encroachment drive a regular feature to displace the poor.
The state government had maintained that the anti-encroachment drive was taken up last year on the directions of the High Court.
Chief Minister Arjun Munda yesterday set up a high-level committee to initiate dialogue with the agitating villagers of Nagri.
PTI
First Published: Thursday, July 12, 2012, 15:02