Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Bhubaneswar, Jul 24:

Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi will launch a campaign from August across the country over the implementation of Forest Rights Act (FRA) informed former Union Minister and senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh here today.

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“The first session of this campaign will be held at Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh on August 6. The second session of the campaign will be held in Odisha in the month of September. Later sessions of this campaign will be held in Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Telangana, Chhattisgarh, and Gujarat. Forest rights campaign will be a major programme of the Congress,” informed Ramesh addressing a press conference here today at the Congress Bhawan.

He said Rahul Gandhi will discuss on individual rights and community rights under the FRA during the campaign.

“Till date Adivasis have been only granted individual rights under the FRA. They are yet to get their community rights under the same law,” the senior Congress leader alleged.

On the other hand, ruling BJD’s spokesperson Amar Prasad Satpathy has said that the former Minister was only making political statements.

“Former Union Minister (Jairam Ramesh) has come to Odisha as a tourist, but his real objective is to bring to notice issues favouring his party. The state government has been always giving importance to the socio-economic development of the Adivasis. Congress is unaware of facts. Odisha is the country’s role model so far the implementation of FRA is concerned,” said Satpathy in his reaction to Ramesh’s statements.

Commenting on ruling BJD planning to stage demonstrations across 15 districts protesting against Chhattisgarh's proposed barrage on the upstream of the Mahanadi River from July 25 till August 11, Ramesh said it is meant to divert the attention of people from the issue.

"If the barrage construction by Chhattisgarh government on Mahanadi river affects Odisha, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik should take an all-party delegation to Delhi and apprise the Prime Minister that construction work must start after discussion with Odisha," said Ramesh.

He said the party would send a delegation to Chhattisgarh to take stock of the situation in next seven days and prepare a report.