Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Sagar collector and SP had to sit on the ground to accept the demands letter from former chief minister Digvijaya Singh who was staging a dharna in village Raipura of the district on Thursday.
The veteran Congress leader was sitting on a dharna in support of dalit families, whose houses were razed by the forest department claiming that they were constructed on the forest land. It was only after the district administration gave in writing to accept the demands that the ex-CM ended the dharna.
On Wednesday, a team of forest department had razed 12 houses of the Ahirwar community, in village Raipura that comes under Surkhi Assembly constituency of Sagar district Day after the demolition of houses, the former CM led a team of Congress leader to the village on Thursday and met the affected families. Thereafter, Singh and other party workers sat on dharma seeking justice to the families. Singh has stated that he would not end the dharna till their demands were not accepted by the administration.
Administrative officials rushed to the village as soon as news of ex-CM sitting on dharna reached them. The SDM, SDOP and the police station in-charge were the first to reach the village. Later the SP Abhishek Tiwari also reached the spot.
The SP also sat in front of the ex-CM as he listened to the demands raised by him. Later the DFO Mahendra Pratap Singh reached the spot. Collector Deepak Araya, who was the last to reach the spot, also gave a patient hearing to the matter. The collector accepted the administration’s fault in overlooking the SOPs while carrying out the demolition. The collector gave in writing to fulfil the demands raised by the Congress leaders.
The ex-CM had demanded to make temporary residential arrangements for the affected families till their houses were constructed. He also asked to arrange food and the necessary household goods that were damaged in the demolition.
Singh blames minister
The issue took a political turn as both Congress and BJP came face to face blaming each other. Attacking state minister Govind Singh Rajput, the Congress senior leader accused him of harassing the dalti families by getting their houses razed. The minister, however, stated that he was not aware of the development (demolition of houses) and assured to support the affected families.
