(Riya Saha, Intern Journalist) CHATRA: There has been a significant increase in property disputes in the district ever since migrant workers started returning to their home villages in large numbers due to nationwide lockdown.
Forty-three new cases over property disputes were registered against 243 people in Mayurhund police station of Chatra alone in recent months. The officer-in-charge of Mayurhund police station, Rupesh Mahto, said, “Cases of land disputes have increased all of a sudden following the return of migrants.”
The lockdown and loss of jobs have compelled tens of thousands of migrants workers to return to their villages and the limited economic opportunities that had driven the workers’ exodus from parts of the country over the years have shrunk further in lockdown. In Jharkhand, unemployment went from 8.2% to 59.2% between March and May, before making some recovery to 21% in June. As the number of job dips, that of property claimants has grown.
A village said, “Many people from Chatra work in bigger cities. Their sudden return and decision to live here have made their relatives agitated. The latter was so far looking after the agricultural plots of the migrants and treating those parcels of land as their personal property.”
Police said often disagreements over property are resulting in legal battles between family members and many migrants who have returned home after several years away have discovered that their relatives — who were given the responsibility to look after their property — have sold off their portion of the land.
An elderly man in the village said, “In most cases when people leave the village, it is assumed they will make their own living and will have no active role or share in family landholdings. Now they are back and are staking claim to something they had been written off from. So brothers and sisters are fighting.”
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