HC: Reconstruct wall around Bihar Industrial Area Development Authority plot at Bhajanpura

FORBESGANJ: The owners of Auro Sundaram Glucose Factory, who wanted to set up a glucose and starch factory on the land allotted to them by Bihar Industrial Area Development Authority (BIADA) but were caught in a controversy following police firing on the land at Bhajanpura in Forbesganj in Araria district, have got reprieve from Patna high court.
A single bench of Justice Kishore Kumar Mandal, on September 23, has ordered the Araria DM and SP to get the damaged wall on the BIADA land at Bhajanpura reconstructed within five weeks and also play a proactive role in industrial development schemes.The court has also directed the chief secretary and home secretary to monitor the wall reconstruction work at Bhajanpura.
The managing director of Auro Sundaram Glucose Factory had filed a habeas corpus petition in the HC in October last year following the police firing on June 3, 2011, at the 35-acre plot of land allocated to them on BIADA campus at Bhajanpura which put the work on factory under hold. Four villagers, including a woman and a child were killed in the firing. The villagers were demanding a road through the proposed factory campus at Bhajanpura. The incident has triggered a political storm. The Bihar government had instituted a judicial inquiry headed by retired Patna HC judge Madhvendra Sharan. He is yet to submit the report.
The work on the Rs 135 crore glucose and starch factory, which could boost maize production across northeast Bihar and usher in a turnaround in the industrial landscape, was put on hold, compelling the factory owners to seek relief from the HC.
When contacted, Araria DM Chitranjan Singh told TOI on Wednesday that he has not yet gone through the Patna HC order. "Once it is available to me, I will discuss it with the SP before taking any action," he said. Farooq Ansari, whose infant son Mukhtar Ansari was killed in the police firing, has in an affidavit before the court, has maintained that he would never like to throw spanner in any kind of development activity.