Odisha unit Cong, BJP call for Kandhamal bandh

Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Bhubaneswar, Jul 10:

The main Opposition parties in Odisha-Congress and BJP have called for a Kandhamal bandh tomorrow to protest against the killing of innocent tribals by the police in Kurtumgarh in Kandhamal district on Friday night.

“We demand immediate stringent action against those responsible for these killings. We appeal to all the residents of Kandhamal district to make this bandh a success by all accounts to oppose the anti-Adivasi and anti-Dalit policy of this government,” said Prasad Harichandan, Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) president criticizing the state government.  A team of the party lead by Harichandan along with party’s former MP and tribal leader Pradip Majhi was on a visit to Gumudumaha to meet the bereaved families.

“This is not the first time such killings have happened in this region. There have been five similar killings. This has happened in Rayagada, Bhawanipatna, Kotagarh and many other places. If the government wants peace it has to take immediate and strong action against the local superintendent of police and the commanding officer of the CRPF who are clearly responsible for this massacre of innocent people,” said Pradip Majhi speaking to reporters at ground zero.

Majhi, who along with Harichandan had come to the village riding 15 kilometres on a tractor through forest tracks, participated in the funeral of the deceased tribals.

Harichandan and Majhi also visited the spot where the firing had taken place.

The BJP, which had earlier called for a peaceful Kandhamal bandh on July 12, wary of losing out to Congress, preponed it for tomorrow, as the Congress later in the day gave a call for a Kandhamal district bandh tomorrow.

The party had earlier announced here that it will hold a bandh/hartal on July 12 and a team of the saffron party led by its state unit president Basant Panda was scheduled to visit Gumudumaha tomorrow.

The party’s projected chief ministerial candidate for Odisha for the 2019 general elections and currently Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan while condemning the killing of innocent tribals in the police firing has called for an inquiry by a sitting judge.

“This needs to be probed in detail by a panel led by a sitting judge. Several judicial inquiries have been held in Odisha earlier. What has happened? This is a very serious matter. This is a great injustice to the Adivasi samaj,” said Pradhan in his reactions to the ghastly incident.