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Ghatshila: Another election has gone by, but the hope for revival of copper mines in the copper townships of Musaboni and Moubhandar under the Ghatshila assembly seat reserved for tribals still seems bleak, rued Patrick D’ D'Souza on Tuesday.Patrick works in a star hotel in Gurgaon after graduating from Mumbai. He had completed his education at a private missionary school in Musaboni. His is one of the many Anglo-Indian families who had settled in the twin copper townships.But after the mines were shut down since December 1997 in undivided Bihar, Anglo Indian families were forced to migrate to other places in the country or abroad.Speaking to TOI after casting his vote at the Shivlal High School polling booth, Patrick said, “Built in 1928, Musaboni was once a sprawling town.
But the British govt residential place slowly transformed into ghost colonies with abandoned quarters.”“Even after 25 years of the formation of Jharkhand, no political party or candidate has taken steps to open the copper mines, which once yielded gold as a by-product and was the backbone of Ghatshila economy,” he added.Airing similar sentiment, Jhuma Rao (22) said, “I did my schooling from the Kendriya Vidyalaya, Surda.
Thereafter, I had to shift to Delhi for graduation. The Ghatsila college offers very limited courses and most of the departments lack an adequate number of teachers.”Rao, after exercising her electoral franchise at KV, said, “My father runs a grocery shop in Moubhandar. The sales figure is very poor as people living in the vicinity are economically downtrodden due to a lack of jobs.”“I will take my family with me to the place where I get a job. The nearest hospital, which offers all types of treatment, is loctaed in Jamshedpur,” she added.Mani Hembrom, a tribal first-time voter, said, “In political rallies in the run-up to the bypolls, no candidate from any alliance presented any blueprint of employment, education or health in Ghatshila. So, I opted for the NOTA button.”
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