Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Bhubaneswar, Jul 14:

A day after a team of the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST) led by its Chairman Rameshwar Oraon visited Baliguda block in Odisha’s Kandhamal district to conduct an on-spot inquiry into the police firing during an anti-Maoist operation on July 8 that led to the death of five innocent persons and seven injured, Chairman of National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) P L Punia today visited Baliguda to conduct an on-spot inquiry.

P L Punia

Punia while expressing grief over the unfortunate incident met family members of the victims and district administration officials and collected all details about the incident from them.

He  suggested that the state government register cases under the provision of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act for the incident.

“In the case of a cross firing, some are hurt and some are dead. But here the firing was from one side, five people were killed and seven were critically injured. The police opened fire unilaterally without any provocation On the basis of my observations, I will make some recommendations to the government here and monitor it from Delhi.If required the senior officers like the chief secretary, home secretary and director general of police of Odisha will be called to meet the Commission,” said Punia briefing reporters.

He also said that victims families should also be given "adequate compensation" as per the provisions of the POA.

The NCSC Chairman said the state government had informed him that it has already made provisions for providing housing for the victims' families and the children of victims would be provided free education up to graduation level.

Notably, as per reports, three of the deceased belonged to the scheduled caste communities.