Ranchi, May 1 (IANS) Jharkhand opposition parties Sunday rejected the government’s rehabilitation policy for the more than one lakh people displaced by an ongoing demolition drive in the state.
The cabinet Saturday night cleared a two-phased rehabilitation package.
Under the first phase of temporary settlement, the affected people will be shifted to makeshift tents where basic facilities will be made available.
In the second step, the government will construct flats but only for people below the poverty line (BPL).
The government has not come out with any measures for the non-BPL families.
‘The rehabilitation policy is misleading. The government should not differentiate among the displaced. Those who have been displaced are poor people and they all should be covered under the policy,’ former chief minister and Jharkhand Vikas Morcha-Prajatantrik (JVM-P) president Babulal Marandi told reporters.
Marandi staged a hunger strike at Morabadi ground here Sunday, demanding that the demolition drive be stopped immediately.
The Congress has also rejected the rehabilitation package.
‘There is nothing new in the policy. There are both state and central government sponsored housing schemes for BPL families in rural and urban areas,’ Congress spokesperson Shailesh Sinha told IANS.
Over 5,000 illegal structures have been demolished in Ranchi, Jamshedpur, Dhanbad, Bokaro and other districts in the last 45 days on the directives of the Jharkhand High Court.
The demolition drive has claimed 13 lives and rendered more than 1.20 lakh people homeless.
