VISHVENDU JAIPURIAR
Hazaribag, Jan 14: Land sharks are eying the expensive land of famous and ancient Ram Janki Mandir Chota Akada in Ichak block and have used earth movers to cut the trench on its land. This has caused massive rage among villagers who have requested the district administration to intervene and take necessary steps to save the temple land.
Villagers said the trench was dug on Jan 11 by those running the Adarsh inter-college in the block. They said the empty and vast plot of the temple is behind the college and so a trench was dug with a plan to include it in the college area.
In their application to deputy commissioner Nancy Sahay, subdivisional officer Vidya Bhushan Kumar and Ichak circle officer Manoj Kumar Martha, villagers said college owners namely Jeevan Mehta, Manish Mehta and Manoj Mehta are behind this practice. They said this temple is under the Jharkhand Rajya Hindu Dharmik Nyas Parishad.
ALSO READ: Tata Steel Foundation inaugurates Johar Haat at Kadma
“An effort to grab the land of the temple will hurt the Hindu sentiments,” they added.
Villagers including local mukhiya Ashok Kapardar, Vinay Dhawan, Subhash Soni, Gautam Narayan Singh, Pradeep Dhawan, Sudhakar Sharma, Sudip Singh, Rajesh Thakur, Mukesh Kumar, Rahul Kumar, Ranjeet Kumar, Indar Yadav and Nandu Ram said when they tried to stop the trench cutting work, college owners threatened them of dire consequences.
One of the college owners Manish Kumar Mehta said they don’t want to hurt sentiments.
“We want to use this land as sports ground as per agreement with Mahant of the temple Mohan Das in the year 2008. We cut a trench to stop those using this ground for alcoholic parties as well as gambling,” he added.
Officials said they are going through the records and the claims of the college owners but no one will be allowed to grab the temple land.
