Displaced tribals lay bare DVC jobs scam, demand CBI inquiry

Sindri: Members of Adivasi Ghatwar Mahasabha from Jharkhand and West Bengal went semi-nude and took to fasting and staged a demonstration at Simpathar village in Sindri on Thursday demanding employment to the villagers displaced by Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) and a CBI probe into 9,000 employments given to fake persons in the name of displacement.
More than 4,000 villagers, including men and women, from Dhanbad and Jamtara districts of the state and Purulia and Burdwan districts of neighbouring West Bengal converged at Simpathar to express their solidarity with the members of the Mahasabha who have been on a dharna since March 1.
"The land and houses of nearly 1670 of villagers of Simpathar was acquired by DVC in 1953-54, but none of them were provided employment," alleged Ramashray Singh, adviser of the Mahasabha. He added that of the 1700 villagers displaced from Telkuppi village of Purulia district, only 500 villagers got appointment and the DVC management provided employment to fake persons in the pretext of displacement.
He said members of Ghatwar Adivasi Mahasabha have held protests and been on fast 150 times in the last 10 years, even in Delhi and Kolkata. Though the DVC management has signed 34 agreements with the Mahasabha so far, he said, adding none of them have been implemented. Despite assurances of prompt action from the offices of the Prime Minister and state chief minister, the DVC authorities continue to ignore their directives, he alleged.
JMM MP (Rajya Sabha) Sanjiv Kumar was there all along to lend support to the agitators, who were demanding that the Centre order a CBI probe into the appointment muddle.