2 min readPatnaDec 6, 2013 01:22 AM IST
First published on: Dec 6, 2013 at 01:22 AM IST
The Bihar government initiated Thursday the process to restore land to the 17 Muslim families who had to abandon their houses in Garhotia under Lodhipur during the 1989 Bhagalpur riots.
Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had claimed on 30 October in Delhi that land had been restored to these families but a report in The Indian Express on December 4 showed the ground reality was different and that none of the 17 families had been returned land 24 years after the riots.
The Bhagalpur district administration sent a team to Garhotia on Thursday and got measured a 7,405-square-foot plot illegally held by one Patel Yadav of Anantpur Tola. Mustakeem,one of the 17 beneficiaries,said: Plots were measured and photographed. But we have not yet received possession slips. We have been asked to wait for possession.
Meanwhile,the All India Congress Committee has asked the partys Bihar unit to send a team to Garhotia and submit a report.
Bihar Congress media in-charge Premchand Mishra said: Nitish Kumars tall claims of restoring land to Muslims stand exposed. This also shows how bureaucrats have been keeping the CM in the dark about facts.
He said a Congress team led by Bihar party president Ashok Kumar Choudhary would visit Garhotia Friday,meet the 17 Muslim families and other villagers and submit a detailed report.
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