- Thursday, May 01, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
THIS Raksha Bandhan festival saw a long-standing land dispute between two siblings in the eastern Indian state of Bihar quietly getting resolved after the sister tied a ‘rakhi’ (an amulet) on the wrist of her brother on Sunday (22).
On the days of Raksha Bandhan, a popular festival of the Hindus, sisters tie rakhis on the wrists of their brothers and pray for their well-being.
The unique incident happened after a local village court met on Sunday to settle the dispute over 12.26 acres of land which has been continuing in the family for more than five decades, Gulf News reported.
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The issue saw the two sides at loggerheads over the years but after the court gave its ruling, the sister tied the rakhi instantly on the wrist of her brother and it saw a happy ending to an ugly battle.
It was reported that Pyari Mandal, a resident of Purnea district of Bihar, had married for the second time after his first wife died. He had a daughter named Ramiya Devi from his first wife while his second wife, a widow, already had a son named Puran Mandal.
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The man, in order to avoid family dispute, distributed his land between the two children by preparing court papers. While 5.25 acres were given to the son, the remaining 7.11 acres were given to the daughter.
After Pyari Mandal died, Puran reportedly started staking claims on a piece of land belonging to his sister Ramiya and this gave birth to the dispute which went on for decades.
Both sides then approached the village court to resolve the matter. On Sunday, the court met and both sides decided to end the dispute permanently. It was then when the sister suddenly took out a rakhi and tied it on the wrist of the brother and prayed for his well-being. Seeing this, both sides turned emotional as the woman hugged her brother and tied the ‘rakhi‘.
“This is the happiest moment of my life today as decades-long dispute has finally come to an end. I had been waiting for this moment for long,” Ramiya Devi told reporters on Monday (23).
Land disputes remain a major source of social tension in Bihar and more than 60 per cent of crimes in the state occur because of them and the state government attaches a top priority in resolving them.
“Nearly 60 per cent of violent crimes in the state have their roots in land disputes. To minimise these, a fresh survey and settlement of land records are underway. In addition, a number of other measures have been taken which people need to be made aware of,” Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar said in the past.
His government put a check on cases related to land disputes after he found that a majority of the complaints coming up at his weekly courts are linked to land disputes. Kumar has been holding the people’s court since 2005 when he first came to power in the state.
