As many as 100 houses have been razed to the ground in the past two days after the Nitish Kumar Government launched a massive drive to remove encroachments from government land. People experienced a replication of Yogi Adityanath’s “bulldozer model” here in Bihar. Ironically, this time it affected the very people who celebrated the victory of Yogi in UP elections.

The residents of Nepali Nagar located in the heart of Patna are now wailing inconsolably staring at a bleak future that lies ahead. Dozens of bulldozers are engaged in razing the structures they built with hard labour. Most of the people had sold their ancestral properties in villages to buy the plots in the state capital.

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The situation is such that bulldozer has now become a “symbol of terror”. People yell at the mere sight of a bulldozer passing through the area and shudder at the thought of someone’s house getting bulldozed. Strangely, the entire area which is now facing demolition drive is considered the stronghold of the BJP which can be underlined from the magnificent performance of the BJP in both 2019 Lok Sabha and 2020 assembly polls.

But when the local BJP legislator, Sanjeev Chaurasia, reached the Nepali Nagar locality to meet the bulldozer victims and shared their grief, they literally shouted at him, asking him to resign if he can’t help save their houses they constructed after years of struggle.

“What’s the point in continuing you as our legislator when you can’t use your influence to save our houses? Better you should resign immediately,” shouted the angry residents left homeless overnight. Chaurasia, on his part, accused the local administration of acting irresponsibly.

The wailing residents are staring at the scattered rubbles of their homes, many are refusing to leave their demolished buildings. The case of a teacher, Pradeep Kumar, is worth mentioning here. Only on Saturday, Kumar had performed the basic rituals of “Grih Pravesh” (house warming). But on Sunday, he was helplessly watching it being bulldozed before his own eyes.

Dharmendra Jha, a resident of Samastipur, had bought a land plot in 2014 and subsequently, constructed a building after spending Rs 45 lakh but found it getting pulled down by the bulldozers. Similar was the fate of the home once owned by Prince Kumar who built it after spending Rs 25 lakh in 2017. Kumar who works in a private company had sold out his ancestral properties in the home district of Vaishali but now he stands homeless.

The local administration has bulldozed around 100 houses so far. According to the government, they were constructed after illegally occupying the lands owned by the Housing Board and the residents refused to vacate the land despite repeated requests. The Patna High Court in a quick action has put a stay on the demolition drive.