RANCHI: Jharkhand police on Sunday allegedly resorted to mild force and fired tear gas shells to disperse farmers protesting against the construction of Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences-2 (RIMS-2) on agricultural land, while wearing masks of ‘Dishom Guru’ Shibu Soren.
Despite heavy deployment of police forces, the protesting farmers—most of them tribal men and women—reached the proposed site of RIMS-2 through the footpaths of the fields and continued ploughing and planting saplings as per the pre-determined ‘Hal Joto-Ropa Ropo’ programme.
Thousands of farmers from far-flung areas, including Latehar, Lohardaga, Bijupada, Hatma and Bedon, joined the movement to save their agricultural land.
The administration fired tear gas shells to drive away villagers who had reached the proposed site for RIMS-2 at Nagri, but this did not deter the farmers as they kept on ploughing their land and planting saplings.
“Prohibitory orders have been imposed in the entire area. When the crowd became uncontrolled and tried to create ruckus and enter the restricted area, police had to use tear gas to disperse the crowd. The situation is now under control and the police is monitoring the situation,” said Ranchi Rural SP Praveen Pushkar.
Meanwhile, the farmers blocked the Ring Road for quite some time, causing hundreds of vehicles to remain stranded on both sides of the road for several hours, until the blockade ended by six in the evening.
In anticipation of these protests, Ranchi police allegedly placed Champai Soren under house arrest on Sunday morning to prevent public disorder. Authorities formally cited law and order concerns for the precautionary detention. Several other tribal leaders were also taken into custody ahead of the ‘Hal Joto-Ropa Ropo’ programme on Sunday.
Champai Soren, however, termed the move as undemocratic, emphasising that his objection was not to RIMS-2 per se but to its placement on tribal land. He reiterated his demand that the project be relocated elsewhere. The BJP denounced the arrest as authoritarian overreach, labelling it “outright dictatorship” by the state administration.
According to local villagers, no construction has been carried out on the land acquired for RIMS-2 for a long time, so they claim a natural right over the land. Under the banner of Nagri Jamin Bachao Sangharsh Samiti, the villagers have launched a movement and have invited nearby farmers to join them.
“We are not against RIMS-2, but they should find some barren land rather than the agricultural land on which we have been doing agricultural activities for several decades,” said a protesting farmer, requesting anonymity.
Earlier, Leader of Opposition Babulal Marandi and Congress leader Bandhu Tirkey had also extended support to the villagers.
For RIMS-2, 102 acres of land were initially marked in Sukurhutu at Kanke, but after the dispute, Nagri was identified for the same, prompting villagers to raise their voices as they have been tilling the land for decades.
Notably, there is a plan to construct Asia’s largest state-of-the-art super-speciality hospital, ‘RIMS-2’ (Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences - 2), at Nagri in Ranchi. This 2,600-bed world-class hospital is expected to be built in the capital Ranchi, offering all multi-super-speciality services simultaneously.