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Varanasi: A tribal leader sustained bullet injuries in police firing at Kanhar Dam project in Duddhi tehsil in Sonbhadra district on Tuesday. He was referred to Sir Sundar Lal Hospital of Banaras Hindu University Hospital in a serious condition. Many women were also injured in police lathi-charge.

Reports said hundreds of people assembled at Kanhar Dam project in protest against the acquisition of land on Tuesday morning. When they started raising slogans and turned restive, the police used force to disperse the gathering. The police also opened fire in which tribal leader Aklu Kharwar from Sundari village sustained bullet injuries on his chest.

General secretary of All India Union of Forest Working People Roma said that thousands of men and women assembled at the site to intensify protest against land acquisition on Ambedkar Jayanti. The protesters were carrying the photographs of Baba Saheb to mark the day as 'Save the Constitution Day', she said, alleging that police fired deliberately on the protesters, among whom women were in the forefront.

IG Varanasi zone Amrendra Kumar Sengar said that protestors, who chased away the labourers from the construction site, attacked the police team. "The police had to use force to bring the situation under control," he added.

Roma said that National Green Tribunal (NGT) had stayed construction at the dam site on December 24 for lack of environmental clearance. Despite the stay order, the UP government went ahead with construction at the site.

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The foundation stone for the construction of Kanhar Dam in Dudhi tehsil of Maoist-affected Sonbhadra district was laid by then chief minister Mayawati on January 15, 2011. It had also triggered a wave of resentment among the locals, mostly tribal, who feared large-scale displacement. The foundation stone was laid in Lucknow and later the plaque was fixed at the village. It was not the first time when the locals opposed the construction of dam on Kanhar river, a tributary of the Sone river. In 1976 too, then chief minister N D Tiwari had laid the foundation stone of Kanhar Dam but the project was stopped due to opposition from local people.


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