On 12 July 2015 the poor people set a laudable precedent in the vaasbhumi andolan by setting up 1,700 huts and taking control of 22 bighas of land in Padhariya Mauja coming under Gadahani block of Bhojpur district, where Ara town resident absentee landlord and notorious capitalist of the district Vinay Jain had kept the said land under his illegal kabja. No administrative officer dares to go there in the face of the people’s courage and unity. This has increased the enthusiasm and belief of the people in the Party.
Vinay Jain owns several properties in Ara town. The land in question was earlier the property of the Bihar govt. The revenue officer of this Mauja used to live in Vinay’s house, and with his connivance Vinay’s family made documents through fraudulent means to get kabja of this land. Local sharecroppers used to farm this land. For the last 30 years this land has been fallow (parti). In 1992 flags were planted under the Party leadership and it was declared that the land would be freed.
Recently, after a series of fraudulent attempts by various fraudsters to claim the ownership of land the Party decided not to let the land remain ‘parti’ any more, but to let the neighbouring poor people settle on the land. On this basis the landless poor of Gadahani, Padhariya, Suari and Dhamniya villages were mobilized and on 12 July hundreds of them gathered to put up huts on the land and establish Nirmal Nagar there. Gradually, 1,700 jhopdis in all have been put up there. The authorities are silent, and the media is also largely silent. Regardless of what the govt or the media does, the people’s need for dwelling is so acute and urgent that they are ready to face anyone who challenges them.
The land now bears an air of celebration. Passers-by stop to take in the scene. Even now people are coming to see this and the people who have taken its kabja. They are being told that all villages have similar lands; they are being urged to find out such lands and take kabja there also. Nothing will be achieved by depending on the govt for land or housing. It is better to mobilize the people under the leadership of the CPI-ML and free gairmajrua and ceiling lands of the Bihar govt from feudal and dominant forces, and take kabja by putting up jhopdis. Preparations are under way for mobilizing the people under the Party flag and putting up jhopdis in various other villages in the future.
