M F AHMAD
Daltonganj, July 14: The applicants for renewal of the lease of the Khas Mahal land and Arms licence in Palamu are in a deep quandary following the change of guard at the DC level in Palamu.
The state government only this Sunday shuffled 17 IAS officers including the Palamu DC.
Anjaneyulu Dodde has taken over the charge as the new DC while former Palamu DC Shashi Ranjan has been sent to the Ranchi Municipal Corporation as its municipal commissioner.
The applicants of the Khas Mahal land and Arms licence are now in panic fearing their progress in work over these two may get a setback following the arrival of the new DC here who will take time to look into it afresh.
There is a serious issue regarding the renewal of leases of the Khas Mahal land in Daltonganj where more than 97 percent of the lease expired long ago. All attempts to get it renewed go in vain following the intricacy and complexity of the issue involved in the Khas Mahal.
Sources said banks refuse loans on the landed property if it is a Khas Mahal land as when its lease expires then technically it is under the right of the state government.
Khas Mahal land can’t be collateral security with the bank for a prospective borrower if its lease is expired.
A senior NCP leader Binu Singh has urged the state government to ease the issue of the renewal of the lease of the Khas Mahal land.
The NCP leader in his recent press conference had strongly advocated that the state government must ease the process of renewal of the lease of the Khas Mahal land.
Binu Singh had demanded a freehold in place of the Khas Mahal as it will bring in more revenue for the state government while the expired lease of the Khas Mahal does not produce revenue.
Similarly, applicants for the Arms licence are fidgety over the change of guard at the DC level.
There is a strange phenomenon in Palamu where obtaining an Arms licence is seen as a matter of status and prestige in society. It is more for a label of dignity than security as Naxalism is down but not out.
Sources said despite curbs and restrictions on any illogical and flamboyant display of the Arms in public, people here do flaunt it only to invite cancellation of the licence etc. Celebratory firing with licensed arms has landed few here in thick soup, according to police sources.
There are more than a dozen applicants for the Arms licence who are also worried about the fate of their licence now little knowing that their application for the Arms licence deserves merit for the grant of licence or not.
