Dalit youth is undergoing treatment at Apollo Hospital in Bhat, and is reported to be critical
A Dalit youth set himself on fire in front of Patan District Collector's office on Thursday afternoon. He took the extreme step over a land dispute with the Gujarat government since 2013. He was rushed to hospital with 85%-90% burn injuries. He is believed to be in a critical state. Two other members of the family were stopped from taking the extreme step by police officials.
The man has been identified as Bhanuprasad Vankar. The land in question belonged to the victim's aunt, who was the original owner of the plot in Dadukha village near Sami town of Patan district. Vankar family was given the 8.23-hactare land by the government in 1955 as reward for their services to the regime at the time under new tenure title. However, the government later revoked the rights of the family of the land when they noticed breach of tenure. The family did not move though, which was treated as encroachment by the administration.
The government, in 2013, passed a resolution to regularize the rights of families who were given land by the government, and that is when the breach was noticed. The family then made a payment of Rs 22,236 and submitted an application with the Patan district collector to get their land rights back. The application was forwarded it to the Revenue Department in 2015.
Since then, they have been running from pillar to post, submitting applications with various departments to get their right to the land back. They have also been informed by the Revenue Department that their application was being reviewed, but the government has yet to resolve the matter.
The family has written three times to the Chief Minister's Office bringing the matter to his notice. They had even mentioned in their letters that they would resort to self-immolation in groups if the dispute was not resolved.
Sources in CMO said, "We had alerted the District Collector and the Superintendent of Police of Patan about the letters sent by the Vankar family, and asked them to take the precautionary measures.
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