By Sami Ahmad

Patna, Sept. 29, 2021: Young Sunaina Kumari has stopped going to school since September 22 as she lost her books during an anti-encroachment drive launched by the authorities in Patna, capital of Bihar state in eastern India.

Her books were taken away by the police vehicle. Her school dress and bag were lost as the police bulldozed their ‘houses’ and loaded all the belongings with a backhoe and loader to a tractor. Sunaina belongs to the marginalized Nat community. one of the most impoverished Dalit communities of Bihar

Talking to TwoCircles.net, Sunaina asked in Hindi, When there is nothing left, how can I go to school?

Sunaina has not given up on her dreams though. The third grader hopes her ‘Papa’ Bindu Nat will arrange her books and school dress. Bindu is a daily wage Thela driver.

Along with Sunaina, Indu, a second grader Janki, a first grader also lost their books and notebooks. The Nat community resides under the Chitkohara foot overbridge in Patna. They are neighbors to the health minister of Bihar Mangal Pandey.

Their ‘Rajbhawan School’ is near the Bihar’s Governor House in Patna. The residence of the chief minister of Bihar Nitish Kumar is just a kilometer away from their area. The Bihar Legislature is also near them.

Talking to TwoCircles.net, Advocate Anshul expressed his amazement over the demolition drive of the place which is also called Jagjivan Nagar named after renowned Dalit leader late Jagjivan Ram. “There is a stay order dated 11 July 2018 by the Patna High Court on any demolition plan under case CWJC no 13166. This case was listed for hearing on 27 September 2021 and just five days before the hearing the houses there were demolished.”

Advocate Anshul said that there is a notification of the Bihar government that asks for a survey and in situ development before removing anyone from any place which the government may require in an important or extreme case. “It is also a rule to first arrange the resettlement and only then shift the settlers,” he said.

Under this foot over bridge runs a railway track that connects Patna to the national capital New Delhi but the woes and pleas of these nearly 300 Dalit families have fallen on deaf ears. They have been left in the rubble.

The circle officer of the area Rakesh Singh told TwoCircles.net that with the help of local police a team of the municipal corporation was employed to clear the encroachment of more than 50 houses.

The affected families, however, allege that police used force against them without any notice. They accused the officials of beating women.

Days after the demolition, the residents of Jagjivan Nagar are still separating the bricks from the cemented sand. They are using clothes as a wall to live and cook. At one place there are two wooden beds erected at a right angle to control the flame of a stove.

Rupesh is the convener of the Shahari Garib Vikas Sangathan (Urban Poor Development Organization). He told TwoCircles.net that they have been living at the foot over bridge and in the adjoining areas for decades. “When this foot over bridge was being constructed the government promised to rehabilitate them, but what they got was a Kabutarkhana under the FoB (foot over bridge),” rues Rupesh.

Rupesh said that the government did nothing after that although, in the last 25 years of the FoB, their family members have increased.

Badly hit by this anti-encroachment drive, Puja is sitting beside a road under a tree to keep away from the scorching sun, ironically adjacent to the Bihar Land Tribunal as her house too was demolished. She is collecting the fallen woods to use as fuel. Her mother-in-law Bichchhi was lying on the road on a plastic sheet.

Puja got scared when a police jeep approached. She got ready to leave as she apprehended that the policemen would beat them. Her husband Pintu was away driving a Thela.

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