Admn alert as Musahars buy arms with IAY money

DARBHANGA: Alarmed over the bloody bid by Musahars to grab land in Khagaria, the Darbhanga district administration has seriously taken vigilance reports that Musahars of the district were buying weapons with the money given by the government to build dwelling units under the Indira Awas Yojana (IAY).
Close on the heels of the killing of 16 people allegedly by Musahars supported by ex-Maoists, the Darbhanga administration held a high-level meeting on Sunday and decided to identify such IAY beneficiaries belonging to the Biraul sub-division where a number of land dispute cases are pending.
At the meeting, attended by DM P M Thakur, SP M R Nayak, Biraul SDO K N Singh, Biraul SDPO Anjani Kumar and SHOs of Jamalpur, Ghanshyampur and Tilkeshwar police stations, the DM asked SDO Singh to immediately initiate legal action in such cases. The SHOs were directed to obtain orders from the SDO for promulgating prohibitory orders under Section 144 at the disputed sites.
SDO Singh told TOI the administration has received police and vigilance reports that Musahar IAY beneficiaries not only invested the IAY money in purchasing arms and ammunitions for using them to capture the disputed plots but some of them also passed on the weapons to Maoists of the area. Since the vigilance reports have not named these beneficiaries, the DM has directed the SDO to identify them and initiate certificate cases against them.
The DM told TOI most of the disputed plots are located on the borders of Darbhanga, Saharsa and Khagaria districts. "I have written to the government for a joint meeting of the three DMs for chalking out a strategy to prevent land-related violence," he said.