The villagers were allegedly forced to leave their homes during the combing operations.spoke to The Pioneer

Tholkobad village, situated uphill in the dense sal forests of Saranda about 280 km away from the State capital, is one of the sites of Operation Anaconda, the month-long joint combing initiative against Maoists run by the State police and the Central Reserve Police Force. The locals here have a shocking account to narrate.

The villagers were allegedly forced to leave their homes during the combing operations. A few of them, who very recently returned to Tholkobad after a month to collect articles left behind, spoke to The Pioneer.

Binodini, a midday meal maker in the primary school of the village, said: “About a month ago, police entered the village and started shooting one morning. We stayed inside our homes, shivering in terror. They slapped us and asked us to leave our homes and took away our BPL cards, voter IDs, and land deeds given by the Government years ago. They destroyed everything. We fled to nearby villages, Karampada and Kiriburu. Today (September 8) we are returning to collect our stuff.”

While seven of eight villages covered under the operation — Tiril Posi, Bitkelsoi, Gundijoda, Rattamati, Digha, Nayagaon and Baliba — faced the ire of the security forces, the identity proofs of Tholkobad residents were snatched and allegedly destroyed by forces.

Refuting the charges, IG Operations, CRPF, DK Pandey said, “Mere allegations made by the villagers won’t help us get to the bottom of things. The investigation is on and the truth will come out.”

According to the list of MoUs signed by the Arjun Munda Government in 2006, Electro Steel, a Chinese company, had been allotted land near Tholkobad to set up its mining reserves and export raw iron ore through the Sahebganj-Barhet road and the north-eastern corridor to China.

Gladson Dungdung, a member of the Planning Commission, said, “The Chinese company is mounting pressure on the State Government to take over the land as early as possible.”

Setting up of operational mines in the reserves areas requires a mandatory undertaking from the company to maintain the standards of environmental balance to the Ministry of Environment and Forest and a written declaration that there is no violation of the Forests Rights Act.

“Companies are required just to clear two major hindrances on their way to set up mines in forest areas. Destroying evidence and identity proofs of villagers by the security forces is illegal,” said Dungdung, who is also a renowned social worker.

In the case of Tholkobad village, the first condition should have been fulfilled by the company through plantation drives once the mines have been set up while the second criterion requires support from the Government to prove that the environment issue has been addressed in the area and the human population has been evacuated peacefully, thus making it clear that there is no violation of the provisions of the Forest Rights Act.

Dungdung said, “Forces resorted to violence in a planned manner, destroying the identification cards of Tholkobad villagers in around 50 households.”

The DG of Jharkhand Police, GS Rath, said if the security forces have destroyed any such papers, then it might not have been intentional. “A CID investigation has been ordered. We will soon know what really happened.”

Rubbishing the police claims that Operation Anaconda was a successful mission, PUCL leader Shashi Bhushan Pathak said: “In the name of action against Maoists, villagers were deprived of their rights to the land and forests in Jharkhand. The National Human Rights Commission should sit up and take note.