45-year-old Attempts Self-immolation in Jamnagar Collector's Office to Get Property Back From Sharks

Ahmedabad: A 45-year old man attempted self-immolation in the compound of the collector’s office in Jamnagar but was stopped by policemen on Monday. He was protesting the failure of authorities to take action against land sharks who had grabbed his plot several years ago.

Babubhai Rajabhai Chavda, who lives in Laiyara village of Dhrol taluka in Saurashtra’s Jamnagar, had written to the collector’s office and threatened to set himself on fire on Monday.

In the letter, he had written that a plot in Laiyara village, bearing the survey number 287/30, was allotted by the government to his father Rajabhai Vastabhai Chavda.

He said that although his father was alive, land sharks in connivance with some government employees, got a fake death certificate of his father and sold and transferred the land to someone else a few years ago. Babubhai said he wrote several petitions to government departments, but did not receive any reply.

The self-immolation attempt comes close on the heels of the death of Dalit activist Bhanubhai Vankar, who had set himself in front of the collector’s office earlier this month in Patan to protest the authorities' failure to regularise a piece of land allotted to him.

His death has triggered off immolation threats by people, especially from lower castes, across the state.

Vankar, who had been struggling for the rights of Dalits of Patan district who were allotted land by the government but never got possession, had intimated the government in advance along with the exact date when he would burn himself.

Despite having stationed cops, an ambulance, fire brigade personnel and other rescue staff, Vankar set himself on fire and died a day later in hospital. The government has set up a SIT to investigate the matter.