SUBHASH MISHRA
Dhanbad, June 25: The unauthorized residents of the Jharia fire zone, who refused to shift to safe quarters, will face action under the Public Premises (Eviction of Unauthorized Occupants) Act 1971.
Dhanbad Deputy Commissioner (DC) cum JRDA chairman Sandip Singh has sought names of such unauthorized families living in the fire zone who have not shifted to the Belagaria Township quarters.
The DC has directed Bharat Coking Coal Limited (BCCL) to take action against them and allot the quarters to other residents living in the danger area.
Jharia Rehabilitation and Development Authority (JRDA) has allotted quarters to non-legal land title holder families of the fire zone at Belagaria Township. But despite the increasing danger to their life and property, maximum of them have still not shifted so far.
While reviewing the shifting of families, DC Sandip Singh directed the officials to remove the names of the families from the list who have not shifted and allot the same to others.
The DC also directed the BCCL management to initiate action against them under the Public Premises (Eviction of unauthorized Occupant) Act 1971.
As per a survey conducted by authorized agencies, 1.4 lakh families claim to have been living in a dangerous fire zone in Jharia.
Among them, 72,882 are unauthorized occupants of BCCL colliery land and 32,046 families are legal land title holders.
As per the DC, so far, 2,648 unauthorized have been shifted in the quarters of Belagaria Township till May 31, while 4,886 legal landholders living in dangerous fire zone have been identified for shifting.
JRDA chairman Sandip Singh, who is focused on the shifting of fire zone residents to a safe place on a priority basis, has also directed the BCCL general managers of the fire-affected colliery to provide a list of families shifted to Belagaria Township quarters and those who have been allotted the quarters so far to the circle officer (CO) JRDA and SDM Dhanbad in 15 days.
