Situation under control in violence-hit Chausa in Buxar: Bihar CM

Nitish Kumar. File pic

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has said the situation in Chausa in Buxar district, where a violent clash had taken place between farmers and police, was "under control".

Ten policemen were injured when around 1,000 villagers, including farmers, attacked the under-construction Chausa thermal power plant and torched around half-a-dozen vehicles on Wednesday, hours after police allegedly beat up locals during a raid, an officer said.

The law enforcers lobbed tear gas shells and fired in the air to control the mob. Interacting with reporters during his 'Samadhan Yatra' in Darbhanga district on Thursday, Kumar, said, "I have spoken to the district magistrate of Buxar and things are under control."

Around 80 farmers of Banarpur village, the lands of whom were acquired for the thermal power plant, had been demonstrating for the past two months outside the project site, seeking adequate compensation. A large number of farmers of the area assembled in the village on Thursday for a 'mahapanchayat'.

They claimed that acquisition of land of around 300 farmers is underway for rail corridor and water pipeline projects of the thermal power plant. Leader of Opposition in the Bihar Legislative Council, Samrat Choudhary, came out in support of the protesting farmers and joined their meeting.

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Senior BJP leader and former deputy chief minister Sushil Modi said, "Those who have been demonstrating are farmers, not criminals." He also appealed to them not to resort to violence.

Terming the police action "highly condemnable", Lok Janshakti Party (LJP-Ram Vilas) leader Chirag Paswan said, "The incident has exposed the inhuman face of the chief minister and the police."

Paswan, who seeks to carry forward his late father Ram Vilas Paswan's political legacy while aligning with the BJP, stated, "The police action against farmers was barbaric. They had been staging a dharna for the last several days for better compensation and claimed that the policemen barged into their houses on Tuesday while they were sleeping, and beat them with batons and boots."

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